Complete changeover at VRH Art Gallery

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

The Valley Regional Hospital Gallery, known to many as the Apple Bin Art Gallery, changed over its entire art collection one morning at the end of September.

During the registration and before the new works were even hung, two pieces by Frances Taylor and Linda Barkhouse were sold as they lay propped against the wall.

It was a busy morning. Two volunteers were registering art and four others were dismantling and hanging paintings. Unsold works in the corridor all summer were being picked up, but organizer Marianne Morrison noted 30 had been purchased.

“We don’t sell as many in July,” she noted. “But usually we have five or six pieces sold before the day is over.”

The popular gallery brings in between $3,000 and $4,000 annually for the Valley Health Foundation and aids Valley artists. There’s a new featured artist every second month.

Morrison said the gallery has been running successfully for 11 years. “The artists think it’s wonderful, especially those who don’t get to sell often. There’s no tax and it’s great exposure.”

She added she has been told that patients who can’t sleep will walk up and down the hallway looking at the art.

Volunteer Bernie Hale of Wolfville says he delivered some paintings for the gallery two or three years and stayed to help hang them. He comes back each season to assist.

“I love it,” he says. “I pick out what will sell while I’m at it.”

Faye Brown, who supervises the gift shop, says hospital visitors appreciate the fact there is no professional mark-up on the paintings.

“They buy them because they like the image and Valley scenes sell well. Lots of families have to wait. They kill time looking at the art and they’re people who never go to a gallery.”

This year the health auxiliary won’t hold its traditional fall fair. Instead, Morrison says a massive bake sale and craft event is planned.

And for the third year in a row, the hospital auxiliary is selling a compact and colourful calendar. The 2008 version includes works by 13 Valley artists and sells for $15.