Try art before you buy collection

BY ALBERT KRAMBERGER

editor@transcontinental.ca

Why buy when you can rent? That's an option being offered to art lovers at Stewart Hall in Pointe Claire.

Stewart Hall's art rental: The new Collection 2008 will be launched during a vernissage Sunday at 2 p.m. The annual event began as a Canadian centennial project in 1967.

The 111 pieces of selected art, ranging from oil paintings, prints, to mixed media, can be rented from $6 to $30 a month. You can rent for up to four months with those fees being applied to the purchase price if you opt to buy.

"This allows people to try out some new art in their home first before buying," said co-ordinator Amanda Johnston. "Some people rent just to have something new in the house."

She added past rental collections have also attracted film companies, corporations, people planning weddings or parties and people who want to spruce up their home as they prepare to sell it at an open house.

About 30 to 40 per cent of the pieces in the annual show are eventually sold, with the artist keeping 75 cent and the remainder going to the City of Pointe Claire, which runs the gallery/cultural centre. All of the rental fees go to the artist in question.

This year set a record for most submissions, with 473, from about 85 artists. A jury then selected the ones to be included in the art rental collection.

"The art is judged for its quality, not by looking at CVs," Johnston said.

Most of the artists are from the West Island or Montreal area, but a couple this year are from Ontario.

The starting price for the framed artwork is $150, with the highest price permitted being $1,500.

Participating artists this year include Virginia Cope, who is currently having a solo exhibit at the Galerie de la Ville in Dollard des Ormeaux, as well as members of the Lakeshore Artists Association (Linda Creasey Brown, Susanne Strater, Hilda Deiss, Janice Donato and Renee Mizgala) and Nasco A. Kafadarow, a recently retired watercolour teacher from John Abbott College.

The vernissage, with close to 400 people expected to attend, is set for Sunday at 2 p.m., 176 Lakeshore Rd., Pointe Claire. The exhibit runs until Nov. 25. For more information, call 514-630-1254.