Art for Cure at Glemham Hall goes live online soon - with more than 1,000 pieces in all mediums and prices raising money for breast cancer support charities
Creativity flourishes when faced with adversity. A simple idea can become much better when its creator is forced to become innovative when the straight forward solution is shut off.
This is the situation facing the curators of the Art for Cure exhibition at Glemhall Hall, near Saxmundham. This prestigious biennial event has been forced to postpone because of the Coronavirus outbreak but necessity has once again proved to be the mother of invention.
Faced with the necessary cancellation of two forthcoming exhibitions Art for Cure, the Suffolk-based charity, selling contemporary art to raise funds for breast cancer research and support services, has mobilised volunteer action to create a wonderful new online gallery.
What was merely a germ of an idea a month ago is now a slick online browsing space where lovers of art and collectors can view and buy.
This year’s exhibition, which goes live at 6pm on Thursday May 7 2020, will be the biggest online sale of art, sculpture, ceramics, photography, textiles and jewellery this season in the UK.
Undeterred by the need to postpone their huge biennial exhibition at the stately home of Glemham Hall, Suffolk, Art for Cure founder Belinda Gray says that the team have been inspired by the VE Weekend spirit and have forged ahead gathering together more than 1000 artworks from 100 artists.
The online show features artists from across the country while still retaining a strong focus on the vibrant Eastern Anglian art scene.
The exhibition includes a considerable number of artists from the region, who, alongside familiar and loved names, have been newly invited to join forces with the charity to raise funds for breast cancer research and support during this pandemic when sadly diagnoses continue.
New this year is Sue Eaton, working from her studio in the countryside near Clare she paints silver birches on metals including aluminium, brass and copper. Beautiful smooth metals reflecting the changing light perfectly. While Eileen Coxon, living in near Beccles, trained at Norwich School of Art and, having survived breast cancer herself, celebrates the Suffolk countryside and its buildings with her brightly coloured paintings.
Guy Allen, also new to Art for Cure is a successful international artist, with a passion for print making and etching; he has developed a series of refined and striking equine images.
Among The Big 100 Artists are also young social media sensation Anna Mac with her wonderfully toned geometric paintings; newly emerging Felicity Beaumont recently out of the University of Suffolk and exploring colour and abstraction of the female form; Barbara Pierson from Wivenhoe depicting glimpses of fleeting moments with figures in coastal scapes and Martin Coe of Woodbridge showing his sensitive landscapes.
Since its inception in 2014, Art for Cure has been at the forefront of popularising garden sculpture and this year introduces new names in The Big 100 Artists online exhibition. Among these are Roger Hardy, working on the River Alde and Deben, dredging and scouring for old wood which he fashions into sculptures that could be of our East Anglian ancestors; Lucy Lutyens, working from her family farm in Essex, casting bronze abstract forms of contemplation; while Essex’s John O’Connor’s Angel exhibits monumental meditative qualities and Suffolk’s Caro Burberry creates serenity figures and Nicola Coe captures a sense of fragile beauty with her egg and spoons.
Sculptors from all over the UK now compete to have their work included in the biennial art exhibition which, this year, is set to be the largest sculpture sale of 2020. This year’s online Art for Cure gallery (www.artforcure.org.uk) will host more than 250 sculptures for sale.
Funds raised from The Big 100 will go to breast cancer support services which complement the excellent core of care from the NHS in the region. Just as importantly, funds also help to finance aftercare support to help people retrieve their lives again, often the most difficult stage. Art For Cure has become the predominant fundraiser to many breast cancer support services in the region.
Financial support to date has included Caring for Me in Woodbridge offering courses of complementary therapies such as massage and reflexology to help relieve stress and symptoms associated with breast cancer treatments; Little Lifts, founded by Oa Hackett who suffered her own breast cancer diagnosis in her 20’s, offering chemotherapy comfort boxes so far those in Ipswich, James Paget and West Suffolk hospitals; and a vital post-surgery exercise class at Henley Road and Felixstowe Pool gyms.
Developing for 2020 are funding for a new role of breast cancer counsellor at the Ipswich John Le Vay Centre and monies will go to new professional development for breast cancer nurses and for gym instructors to work with those with or following breast cancer to rehabilitate and keep fit in the future. Plans are also afoot to fund a holistic post-treatment therapy course in Ipswich bringing together a full suite of complementary services.
Belinda has a medical background having been a nursing sister in London specialising in palliative care. She says: “All money raised is personally monitored and channelled where it is intended. The people of East Anglia have been behind us all the way with this endeavour and we encourage everyone to come online at or after 6pm May 7 to browse and buy; your support, as ever, makes the difference.
“We could never have imagined this lockdown situation arising and our concern goes out to everyone who is affected by this unprecedented situation. Our exciting online exhibition will enable collectors to support our work and enhance their homes and gardens with new pieces of their choice.
“Art for Cure intends to remain on track to reach a million pounds raised for breast cancer research and services since we started in 2014.”
You can view the Art for Cure exhibition online after 6pm on May 7.
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