 We are here with a CTN member highlight. This time we're featuring the main college of art and their upcoming art sale And with me today is Deetland VanderSkaaff, a development officer at Mecca. Thank you very much for joining us. Of course, my pleasure. So this is an annual event. It is. This is our second time holding the art sale We got started about a year and a half ago in the summer But it's going to be our fall event. And this isn't just your usual art sale It's both benefiting the artists and the school, right? Exactly. Yeah We're thinking of it as a win-win-win in that it benefits the artists that are participating It also benefits Mecca scholarship funds. So you're supporting the next generation of artists And I think that for people coming to the event they get to have a, you know, beautiful piece of original artwork So it's a win-win for them as well. And sometimes when people think of art They think of some of them that hang on the wall. There's quite a range of different kinds of items that you have Yeah, that's a good point. We have furniture. We have jewelry. We have prints You know, there's photography. There are paintings, but there's a real wide range of media as well as prices and sizes too So I think that, you know, anyone coming to the event could find something for themselves And there is quite a few artists involved in this. This isn't just students, is it? Exactly. Yeah, it's not just students It is current BFA and MFA students, but it's also alumni from a variety of different decades. It's faculty It's continuing studies students. It's continuing studies faculty. It's visiting artists So it's really the community around Mecca and within Mecca as well. So with all those people you must have quite a few Total people involved with this and a lot of items. We have over 200 participating artists this year Which is a sizable increase from our last art sale and we'll have almost 700 items. Wow, that's really impressive So there's going to be some kind of reception open to the public. Yeah, so the event is Columbus Day weekend It's Thursday Friday and Saturday. The event will start on Thursday morning at 10 a.m We open to the public and that Friday night we will have an artist reception. Oh, and what's that going to be like? Well, we'll invite all of the participating artists to come and so anyone who wants to come to the event at that particular time Could have a chance to meet the artists from whom they purchase work And now you mentioned this is a chance for some people to start a collection of art, right? There must be kind of a range of prices because people who used to collecting art usually used to spending quite a bit of money Right and if somebody wants to buy work from an established artist such as Connie Hayes They can find something here at the art sale, but there's also work by emerging artists and so I think there really is a range I mean I think that you could find something to add to an established collection Or you could find something to start a collection with and now how successful has this been you've already had one, right? Yes, yeah, we were really successful in our first year So we're hoping to build on that momentum and have an even bigger art sale this year Would you like to talk a little bit about the scholarship fund and why it's important? Yeah, the scholarship fund is hugely important And that is our biggest fundraising initiative at the college and that is that we really are hoping to you know Have our students graduate with minimal debt Student debt and we're also really hoping to support them, you know through our scholarship fund at the college So this event helps to do so is there's some place where people can go for more information. They can yeah There's two places actually one you could go to our website Which is mecca.edu backslash art sale and you can find all the details as well as a list of participating artists And I think I would just add that if you're interested in learning more about what's happening at mecca You can also sign up for our newsletter on our website And that's an e-newsletter that comes out once a month this month at mecca tells you all the things that are happening the visiting artists lecture series and Exhibitions that sort of thing great sounds like a great way to get to know mecca as well as get some good art I think so. I hope we'll be able to find something for everybody. Great. Well. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you