AFTER the success of their inaugural event last year, the Swan Hill branch of the Fight Cancer Foundation (FCF) will open their new 9 x 5 Art Exhibition tonight.
FCF Swan Hill volunteer Emily Caruso, who has helped to put the event together, is looking forward to seeing the collection on display at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery.
“It’s really wonderful and it’s a lovely project to be involved with,” Ms Caruso said.
Last year’s 9 x 5 event raised more than $3700 for the FCF.
Pieces will be available to bid on online through the Graeme Hayes website from this evening.
“It’s an ongoing auction, so people can hop on straight away while they are at the exhibition and start bidding for the pieces straight away,” Ms Caruso said.
The event had grown more popular among local artists over the past 12 months, with 69 donated pieces of art to be included in this year’s exhibition.
There were also some high-profile names among the artists, including FCF patrons Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness.
“There are local artists and there are big-name artists that have been connected to Swan Hill over the years in one way or another, so we sort of tapped into a lot of different connection points and styles,” Ms Caruso said.
“When you look at the collections, it’s like from one end of the scale to another as far as art goes.”
The exhibition will be opened on Friday evening by executive director of clinical services Chloe Keogh.
The Swan Hill branch of the Fight Cancer Foundation started in 1993 and over the years has held a variety of fundraisers. This included contributing to the Rotary House Accommodation Centre in North Melbourne.
“In partnership with Rotary a few years ago, they bought a little apartment block, and we help maintain subsidised accommodation for anyone who is travelling down and receiving their treatment,” Ms Caruso said.
“We try and make sure that country people are supported when they have to go and get treatment in the city – it’s not just a case of going on your own and staying in the ward and things like that.”
Also opening at the gallery this evening will be Melbourne-born artist Zanny Begg’s These Stories Will be Different exhibition.
Begg’s exhibition brings together a series of works that reimagine a medieval feminist utopia, probe the unsolved murder of a high-profile anti-gentrification campaigner and explore the connections between love, loss and language in migrant communities in Australia.
The 9 x 5 and These Stories Will be Different art exhibitions open tonight at the Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery from 6pm to 8pm. Both will run until June 12.
To view and bid for the artworks in the 9 x 5 collection, visit auctions.ghrealestate.com.au.
