Art For Gaza: Blue Red Yellow.

Gaza aid art sale nets over £6,000

Hastings campaigners have raised more than £6,000 to help some of the 11,000 Palestinian people injured in the recent bombardment of Gaza. Artists and art-lovers from the Hastings and St Leonards area donated around 100 paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures to raise money for the charity, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

Silk screen print.

The first of two art sales, both organised by Hastings Palestine Solidarity Campaign, took place while the assault on Gaza was at its height. Buyers crowded into the sale room at the White Rock Hotel and there was a continuing queue of people buying throughout the whole afternoon, despite clashes with Old Town Week and a big festival in St Leonards Gardens. A subsequent sale raised further funds for medical aid. 

Art sale: Linda Davidson.

Sale co-ordinator Rachel Lever said afterwards: “We got spontaneous and huge support from local artists, who were deeply moved by the crisis in Gaza. We were also given some valuable pieces by collectors, including two wonderful Australian indigenous paintings from the 1980s.

“The proceeds of our sale will do a little to help the people of Gaza, but MAP still needs more funds. Israeli rockets and shelling killed nearly 1,500 civilians – around a third of them children.  3,374 children were injured and the UN estimates that 1,000 will be left with a permanent disability. Treating them won’t be easy, because 17 hospitals and 50 health centres were damaged or destroyed in the raids; many of those that remain have no electricity and are desperately short of medical supplies.”

Art sale: Pip Carpenter.

You can find out about MAP and make a donation here.

There’s more about Hastings Palestine Solidarity Campaign here.

Also in: Community Arts