Shhhhh!!!….. ILKLEY ARTS STUDIO 7 8 & 9 June 2024
March 27, 2024
Shhhhh!!!… The Secret Postcard charity auction.
The theme was PASSAGE and my little collage represents the passage of time – a vase of flowers made from studio scraps. Flowers are given and received to celebrate and commemorate, to declare love, for friendship and for no particular reason at all!
Therefore my postcard represents all those memories, both wonderful and poignant, which we continue to build and share throughout the passage of a lifetime.
Thank you to all who bid for an anonymous artwork, including my mini contribution, and to Ilkley Arts for organising the event.
The premise of ‘The Secret Postcard’ exhibition below…
Shhhhh!!!…..
Ilkley Arts would like to invite you to take part in ‘The Secret Postcard’ exhibition, taking place on 7th to 9th June 2024 at the Ilkley Arts Studio.
This is the third such fundraising exhibition organised by Ilkley Arts. The first two successful exhibitions raised just over £4500 (split equally between Ilkley Arts and Wharfedale Refugee Action Group) and postcard donations came from Michael Palin, Tim Peake, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Alan Titchmarsh, Jilly Cooper, Joe Cornish and many established artists and makers from around the UK.
All of the artworks will be available to view and purchase by secret auction only. A list of contributors’ names will be circulated before and during the weekend, but work will be displayed anonymously until the auction closes at the end of the exhibition. It is important that exhibiting artists do not identify themselves by name anywhere on the front of the postcard. However, it is open to exhibiting artists include their name, website address, Instagram page and any other information they choose about their work on the reverse of their postcard. The exhibition has been very well supported by the local community in previous years and provides an inexpensive and fun way for artists to reach a new audience at the same time as contributing to worthwhile charitable causes.
All money raised from this years sale will again be split between Ilkley Arts and Wharfedale Refugee Response.
The Wharfedale Refugee Response support group has been working alongside Refugee Action in Bradford since 2016. Together they organise day trips for families living in the Bradford area, as well as clothing appeals, food donations, Christmas gift appeals and more. The day trips to Ilkley and the surrounding areas are so important as they make a huge difference to the families who have been forced to flee from their own countries under often traumatic and harrowing conditions. They provide a break and breathing room for refugee families under great stress and represent a small respite where the parents don’t have to think about how to feed their children for a day and the children have something fun to do.
Without exception the families leave at the end of the day with a huge smile on their faces and a sense that they have felt welcomed by local residents. This is all made possible by the generosity and support of the local community, community organisations and businesses. The group has welcomed families from all over the world, including Sudan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Congo, Burma, Pakistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Morocco, Somalia, Lydia, Syria and Iran.
