For the 2017 bachelor of fine arts graduating class, the end of the semester is fast approaching, and they plan to finish their degrees with a bang. From February 20 to 23, they’re running a silent auction to raise funds for their final exhibition as students. As the first all-female BFA graduating class, they’re putting their own spin on the annual event, and hoping that all of UFV comes to the auction to enjoy — and perhaps purchase — some art to help them make this year’s exhibition unique.
“You don’t have to go to Vancouver to find really good artists or art,” explained Jessica Peatman, one of the eight soon-to-be graduates. “There’s a lot of amazing stuff here.”
In addition to Peatman, the class consists of Christina Billingham, Chantelle Fawcett, April Martin, Marla McGill, Alyssa Rice, Reece Spofford, and Amanda Vergara.
According to Vergara, “The silent auction is one of the bigger fundraisers that we do to get money and funding for our exhibition.”
They hope to raise at least as much as recent years, between $2,000 and $2,500, though McGill added, “We lost a bit of funding from the school this year, so we almost have to cut some things out of our final show or raise a little bit more.”
The works for sale at the auction include paintings, print projects, and sculptures, created by the graduating class themselves, as well as other students, alumni, faculty, and members of the community.
“For student work, the bids will start at $10 to $15, but we have some faculty [with] established careers in arts, so theirs will probably start at around $50,” said Fawcett. “It’s a really good opportunity for someone to get a really good, professional artist’s work for an affordable price.”
There will also be items available for immediate purchase for those who prefer not to wait for the auction to end, including pins, t-shirts, and prints.
The exhibition that the students are raising money for will open on April 28. Inspired by their status as the first all-female BFA graduating class, they’ve opted for an underlying theme to tie it together. The exhibition is called Intension(elle), and Fawcett said that with the art, they “look at how women navigate through the art world, because it is a male-dominated industry. That theme resonates through everyone’s work in some way.” Although Peatman added, “All of us are different too, but the title gives a general theme to capture everyone’s ideas.”
The women also felt that this year was different in terms of their organizing dynamic.
“I’m excited about how much care and thought is put into every detail,” Billingham said. “I think men are awesome, but I don’t think that would be the case if half of us were men. Women are meant to live in community and work in community, and I think that is true to us.”
Raising funds for the exhibition is a critical part of the final year, explained Vergara.
“We have it catered, we have a bar, we have to make catalogues, so we have to fundraise for all that cost. And it’s free to everyone at UFV, too,” she said.
It isn’t just a chance to present the skills they’ve honed over the past four years, however.
“Part of the exhibition too is to give us that real-world experience of exhibiting our work professionally,” said Fawcett. “You can read about it all you want, but not until you actually do it do you learn everything. There’s so many things you learn by doing this process that you wouldn’t learn from reading in a classroom setting. It’s an opportunity, and they send us off with a little bit of real-world experience.”
The silent auction, which was originally scheduled to take place earlier in the month, was postponed due to snow and will now run from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. February 20 to 23 at the S’eliyemetaxwtexw Art Gallery (B136).
Spofford encourages everyone to come check it out, saying that “It can be an interesting experience to buy work and then see that artist blow up in the next couple years. You never know, you could be getting your hands on some real gold.”
With files from Vanessa Broadbent.
Jeff was The Cascade's Editor in Chief for the latter half of 2022, having previously served as Digital Media Manager, Culture & Events Editor, and Opinion Editor. One time he held all three of those positions for a month, and he's not sure how he survived that. He started at The Cascade in 2016.