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On Saturday May 11, the Djanogly Art Gallery at the Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham played host to the East Midlands Contemporary Art Auction, writes Neil Bennison.
Now in its eighth year, the event was organised in collaboration with Marek Tobolewski of Contemporary Independent Artists (CIA) who also performed the role of auctioneer. This is the first time that the auction has taken place at the Djanogly Art Gallery. The first auction was held at the Oldknows Gallery in Nottingham as part of an open studios event in 1993.The following year it moved to the Broadway Gallery. In 1995 the partnership between CIA and Nottingham Castle Museum was established and from 1995 to 2000 the auction developed into a highly successful annual event with 80% average sales, exceptionally high for contemporary art. This year the exhibition and auction were sponsored by Browne Jacobson solicitors who will also be sponsoring the exhibition ?Rubens: Drawing on Italy? at the Djanogly Art Gallery in the autumn.

As in previous years, the 52 works in the auction were selected from an open submission of slides of over 300 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and craft items from artists and makers working in the East Midlands. The work was exhibited at the Djanogly Art Gallery for a ten-day period before the day of the auction and a special preview night was held to generate interest among would-be buyers. The exhibition was accompanied by an illustrated catalogue and advertised in the Lakeside Art Centre?s events brochure. Again, as in previous years, the work was divided into three reserve bands of £50 to £100, £100 to £250 and £250 to £500.The Gallery was fortunate in being able to use the mailing lists of both artists and buyers compiled from previous auctions at the Castle Museum.

Organisers of the exhibition did initially have some trepidation about the likely success of the event this year. Firstly, the change of venue to a gallery two miles out of the city centre in the grounds of the University of Nottingham was one cause for concern. Secondly, by sheer bad luck, the interest-free credit scheme operated by East Midlands Arts which had been used by a third of the purchasers at previous auctions, was suspended during the recent restructuring of the funding system. The problem was compounded by the fact that this year, although the selection was perhaps the strongest it has ever been, more works than ever before were priced within the upper reserve band category.

In the event we were gratified at how swift the bidding was, particularly for the lower price-band works, and at the end of the day over 50% of the works were sold amounting to over £6,000 in sales. The highest prices were paid for a beautiful multi-coloured glass sculpture by Gunta Krumins and a panoramic digital photograph of Prague by Dominic Pote.

It is hoped that the collaboration between CIA and the Djanogly Art Gallery will continue in future years to build upon the success of this year?s auction introducing new audiences and prospective collectors to the work of young and established artists alike.

Neil Bennison is Marketing Officer at Lakeside Arts Centre t: 0115 951 5797; e: neil.bennison@nottingham.ac.uk

Sorry, sorry, sorry... In issue 30 we attributed the article ?Art Under the Hammer? to Neil Bennison. In fact it was authored by Neil Walker. e: neil.walker@nottingham.ac.uk