Briercrest College and Seminary in Caronport, Sask. is putting up nearly 3,000 pieces of art up for sale.
About 3,200 pieces of art were donated to the school more than 15-years-ago. Briercrest has framed and hung about 200 works of art. The remainder has been kept in a safe place.
Carl Sowden lives and works in Caronport. He does a lot of volunteer work with the college. He’s been given the task of cataloguing and having the collection assessed.
He said it’s an impressive collection, but the school could use the money more than the art.
“A lot of it is in use. The rest of it is basically an asset sitting in storage, and for an educational institution that just isn’t good use of resources,” Sowden said.
Sowden said the collection includes multiple works by 55 artists — most of them Canadian.
About half the artworks are originals and most are signed, limited edition prints.
There are pencil and charcoal drawings, oil and watercolour paintings, many photographs and a few mixed-media pieces. There is even a collection of political cartoons.
Some of the more recognizable artworks include 80 photographs by Courtney Milne, signed, limited prints by A.J. Casson — one of the Group of Seven — as well as pieces by First Nations artist Carl Beam.
The original appraisal of the collection was near $3,000,000, but Sowden said he doesn’t expect that much.
Sowden hopes collectors or galleries will come forward to buy multiple pieces of a single artist.
If they can’t sell it, they’ll have to send the art to an auction house.
Source: www.cbc.ca/news