Work by Michael Davis which will be up for sale.

Fund-raising sale of art

A sale of art will take place on Saturday 18^th in aid of Hastings Supports Refugees and the local Labour Party’s Good Ruddance fighting fund. Rachel Lever, one of the moving forces behind the initiative, writes in praise of the sale of art as fund-raiser.

Hastings artists have a great record of fund-raising, generously donating their work for emergencies.

The first one I recall was the response to the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated communities around the Indian Ocean in 2004. The organisers priced all the work at £50 and, as the simplicity caught people’s fancy, they queued up to get first choice.

Danny Mooney with a scroll he has donated to the sale.

We’ve also had  art sales after some very unnatural disasters: in 2008 and 2014 to support Medical Aid for Palestine when trapped civilians in Gaza faced a barrage of hi-tech bombardment.

Selling donated art raises big cash. It also helps to circulate artists’ work onto other people’s walls instead of being stashed in every spare space in our homes and studios. And for art sale junkies, it’s a chance to re-donate back into the community those impulse buys that we’ve enjoyed but are ready to replace with a new look.

Sadly, the need grows and grows. Beyond natural disasters that are in plentiful supply, we now have the terrible shake-out from wars and climate change, creating millions of refugees.

So on Saturday 18 November we’ll be there again. This sale will raise funds for Hastings Welcomes Refugees and for the local Labour’s Party’s “Good Ruddance” fighting fund, which will hopefully up-end the recent order of things with a government that will no longer squeeze the poor and provide for the rich.

Artists donating include Lorna Vahey, Danny Mooney and Oska Lappin, Kim Wan, Ian Francis and Wendy Smith. There are also silk-screen prints, exhibition posters by David Hockney and the late Ken Townsend, and work by Adrienne Hunter, Gill Streater, Linda King, Jane Marriner and a trio of tiny woodcuts by Billy Childish, all donated by their owners.

Prices will be negotiable within three price bands, starting from Bargain Basement. It’s a great way to grab a bargain and sort yourself some Christmas shopping in one go.

Xmas Sale of Art in aid of Hastings Supports Refugees and Hastings and Rye Labour Party’s Good Ruddance fighting fund. Central Hall, Station Road (behind town hall), Hastings. Saturday 18 November, 12-4pm.

Having trouble finding Central Hall? It’s a little way up Station Road, the pedestrian street which runs from Havelock Road to Queen’s Square (photo on left), on the left between PhoneTech and Smokemart Newsagents (photo on right).

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