For 25 years now, Sackville artists and art lovers have been gathering on Valentine’s Day for the annual fundraising art auction, The Sweetest Little Thing. The annual event raises funds for Sackville’s two non-profit galleries, the Owens and Struts.
Starting this week, over 90 different works are on display at thesweetestlittlething.ca, as well as in person at the Owens Art Gallery. Bidding is open online all week, culminating on Valentine’s Day, when people, whether they’re bidding or not, are invited to gather for a celebration at the Owens.
Paul Henderson is the director at Struts gallery. CHMA stopped by to hear from Henderson about the annual event.
Henderson says the partnership between Struts and Owens is special, and has helped The Sweetest Little Thing become “essential” fundraising for both galleries.
“It’s unique in this world to actually partner together with another organization and pool our resources to create an event that actually benefits both organizations really significantly,” says Henderson.
Every year, the list of artists invited to contribute to the auction grows. The contributing artists for the auction all have a direct relationship with the Owens or Struts, says Henderson, and the list includes local artists and those from farther afield who have shown at the galleries in the past. It also includes the third year cohort of Mount Allison’s Fine Arts program.
“It really is a great group of works,” says Henderson, “and every year it is that way… People really get behind it,” he says. After 25 years it’s become a tradition for some artists, and a manageable one, because the works are generally small scale, as per the event name, The Sweetest Little Thing. “A lot of people think about it all year long, what their piece is going to be,” says Henderson. Having “a deadline, a theme, the size, all of that makes it accessible, and people get excited about it,” he says. “And that’s really why the event itself is also such a success.”
The auction closes at 10pm on February 14, and is completely online, a pandemic-era feature that organizers decided to keep, because it helped them tap into the national community of the galleries. “It just made the the actual fundraising part of the fundraiser that much more successful,” says Henderson.
The event on Valentine’s Day begins at 7pm, and is hosted by Tori Weldon and Quinn Waylaing. In addition to the closing of the auction, the night includes karaoke hosted by local artist Graeme Patterson, a Cranewood cafe raffle, a photo booth, door prizes and awards, and this year’s special addition: a pie-in-the-face showdown between local artists John Murchie and Amy Siegel.
One of the key traditions for The Sweetest Little Thing is the annual jingle, which this year was written, performed and recorded by Sackville trio, Blue Horse. You can listen to Kneading You, by Julia Feltham, Galen Olinski and Steve Haley (aka Blue Horse) right here:
