ESTEVAN - The Estevan Public Library (EPL) is set to host their first-ever silent art auction.
The event is slated for Feb. 22-26 and will take place in both online and in-person formats. To partake in it virtually, people would need to check the EPL's social media for links to the bidding website, and the offline version will be taking place inside the library.
"Patrons will have the option to come here to view the items or they can view them online and will have full descriptions and photos," explained Jason Redshaw, EPL branch manager.
Some items are already posted on social media to give people an idea of what will be sold during the auction.
As of the middle of last week, the library had a wide variety of art items donated for their silent auction. Among the 32 donations they had at that time, there was a large quilt from the Hearts and Hands Quilting Guild, along with planters, ceramic birdfeeders and a ceramic Christmas tree that lights up, all from the pottery club. Some patrons donated paintings.
"We had one patron drop off 10 of her paintings. And there are also some paintings that some people have had over the years, they've never hung them up so they brought them in, too … They are from local artists as well. We do have prints and photography prints, too" Redshaw said.
Some of the works include local artists like Walter Suchowolec and Brenda Blackburn.
Redshaw noted that the donations kept coming and will be accepted up to the day of the auction.
He has experience organizing an art auction for a library in Ontario, which went well. And he decided to bring it over to Estevan. They started organizing the event back in October.
"We sent out letters to the Estevan Pottery Club, as well to the Estevan Arts Council just to let them know what we were doing. And we've received donations from some of their members," Redshaw said, explaining that they weren't sure what the COVID situation was going to be come auction time, so they allowed for two simultaneous options.
"There'll be a form that you can go on underneath every picture on the website, you will be able to fill up the online form to make the bid and then the bid comes to me. Or if you're in the library in person, there'll be forms for you to sign up for a bid and you can bring it right to the front desk. And then we will update the highest bid on each item," Redshaw said.
The auction will be a fundraiser for the library. It's going to help fund programming materials, specifically, art supplies.
"It'll definitely help our children’s programming and team programming for the creation of art, and perhaps a few maker kits. But the ideal is to put this into painting, which will eventually get back to the art community," Redshaw said.
"It's a silent auction, so there's not a lot of stress. And it takes place over quite a few days, so it gives you the chance to view the items when you come in.
"We do have some items like big wall paintings, that unfortunately, I cannot display. So I'll have photos in the library. But at any one time, if somebody wants to view them, we can bring up the items for people to view."
