‘The biggest thing of the year’: Annual Craig Gallery show featuring Dartmouth artists sees strong sales
The Craig Gallery at Alderney Landing kicked off the summer with its annual Dartmouth Visual Arts Society (DVAS) show and sale on May 27. “Spectrum: A Community Event” features work from 39 artists in the community.
“There’s such a variety in the work,” says Steve Townsend, one of the artists in the show. “We have some people that are really good with portraits and faces. Then there’s a few people that are doing abstracts and then seascapes, landscapes and people working in different formats, oil, acrylic, watercolour. This is one of the best shows, I think. The shows are getting better every year.”
This is also a strong year for sales, says Townsend.
“This is only my third year, and I’ve noticed a huge difference in the turnout just in three years,” he says.
The show sold 37 paintings last year and 34 paintings in 2024. “We’ve sold 28 paintings in [this year’s] show so far, and we still have another two weeks,” Townsend explained.
This year’s success started the night the show opened.
“We sold 10 paintings our opening night,” says Andrea Landry, the exhibitions coordinator for DVAS. “That’s quite something.”
Townsend says it’s evidence of support for the sector.
“A lot of people think that the government is underestimating the contribution of art and culture in our society,” he says.
The variety of artists makes the DVAS exhibit a different kind of show, Landry says. She says solo shows follow an artist’s particular style.
“You walk into this show and it’s just different,” she says.
Seeing their art hanging on the wall of a real gallery is significant to the artists at DVAS, Landry says.
“It’s really tough to find exhibition space for art, so we are really fortunate,” she says.
The DVAS show is something people are starting to expect, says Craig Gallery manager Tania Fuentes. She says it was one of the busiest openings of the year.
“People come in and say, ‘That’s my friend, that’s my neighbour,’” says Fuentes. “The local community is reflected in the show and they feel a nice connection there.”
Fuentes says the society makes a small donation to use the space but the gallery doesn’t charge commission. All sales support the society, she says.
“It’s part of our mission to give local artists a space and a platform to showcase their work.”
The DVAS has been promoting community artists since 1987. Landry says their partnership with the Craig Gallery, which has gone on for at least a decade, is a lucky inheritance.
“I don’t know who worked out that original deal, but we are grandfathered in,” she says. “Every year we’re going to get this.”
There are close to 100 members in the DVAS showcasing their work at the Craig Gallery or supporting the members who do.
“This is the biggest thing of the year for this group,” says Townsend. “Some people, their whole year is geared towards it.”
It’s a local show that reaches a global audience.
“We had visitors last year from Burma, from South Africa, from Australia,” says Landry. “People from all over the place. Taking a bit of the Maritimes home.”
She says you can’t buy that anywhere else.
“This is an original piece of art. It has a value to you, the buyer. It’s the person who walks in and sees that piece of art and goes, ‘I love that, I need that.’ That’s a feeling.”
“Spectrum: A Community Event” continues until June 28.
This article has been updated to correct an error in how many works of art had been sold in previous years.