Organisers of a unique art sale which took Shrewsbury by storm have presented cheques to four good causes.
The Soden Collection in Wyle Cop, a leading contemporary gallery, hosted the region’s first ‘Secret Artist Sale’ in aid of charity last month, with people camping out overnight to be amongst the first customers.
Jonathan Soden of the gallery, who helped to run the event with Jocelyne Fildes and Tina Boyle, said: “There was the most amazing response to the Secret Artist Sale – we don’t think the town had seen anything like it before!
“Not only did people queue down Wyle for hours to get in, we sold out in an hour and managed to raise over £8,750 for charity, far more than all our expectations.”
The event featured around 120 pieces of original art contributed from international, national, local and emerging artists and raised money for four good causes: Breast Cancer Now, The Samaritans, Trees for Shropshire and Alzheimer’s Society.
Tina Boyle, of Shrewsbury High Street store Acoustic Boutique, explained: “All the work was a standard size and all for sale at £50 so this was a fantastic opportunity for people to acquire original paintings by some outstanding artists such as Halima Cassell MBE, Philip Sutton RA, The Doodle Boy and Matt Sewell for a superb price.
“The sale opened at 10am and we had sold out by around 11am. We also held a raffle and a ‘silent auction’ for some larger artwork and the success was overwhelming.
“We are already receiving offers of artwork for next year so we hope to make this an annual event in Shrewsbury, hoping it will be bigger and better in 2023” Tina added.
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