February 6, 2017
A crowd of more than 50 packed into the Wondai Regional Art Gallery on Friday night hoping for art bargain, and several walked away with special finds.
The occasion was the return of the Gallery’s popular “Under The Bed Sale”, which encourages local artists to put their unsold works on sale at bargain prices to free up space in their storage rooms, and art lovers to buy them at steeply discounted prices.
The sale is normally held every three to four years, and the last one was held at Wondai Town Hall in February last year while the Gallery was closed for renovations..
But it made an unexpected return when this month’s artist Lee Barker had all his artworks destroyed in a fire.
“It was too short a notice to ask another artist to put together an exhibition, so we decided to put on the Under The Bed Sale instead,” curator Elaine Madill told the opening night audience.
“I’m proud to say we have 37 artists – including some from Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Childers and Mundubbera, as well as locals – who’ve put in a combined 316 entries, so there’s a lot to choose from.”
The artworks fill all the available wall space in the Gallery, and several which were snapped up on Friday night made room for others propped up against walls or held in storage to be hung.
Mrs Madill, who won the South Burnett Citizen Of The Year at this year’s Australia Day Awards, received a warm round of applause for her efforts but humbly waved it away.
“I’m very proud to have received this award, but we have another award winner here tonight plus two others who were nominated, and I think that just shows what a community like Wondai can do,” she said.
Mrs Madill then went on to explain that her stroke last September meant she was now undergoing some significant changes in her life, but went on to assure the opening night crowd this hadn’t dimmed her enthusiasm for either the Gallery or its work.
“Our plans to make the Gallery a cellar door for Kingsley Grove Estate, Crane Wines, Moffatdale Ridge and Clovely Estate got a little derailed, but we’re back on track and hope to open it up in the next two to three months after we do the necessary paperwork,” Mrs Madill said.
“We also want to see if we can find a grant to extend the Gallery’s kitchen and put in some extra storage areas because we’re desperately short of space, and I have every hope we can.”
- The Under The Bed Sale will run at the Wondai Regional Art Gallery from 10:00am to 4:00pm daily until close of business on Sunday, February 26. Admission is free and the Gallery takes no commissions on works in the sale.
