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Non-MX Articles: Tom McCamus, Chick Reid (8/09 The Other Canvas)

Excerpt from Community Press 8/24/09: Tom McCamus, Chick Reid (Nicole Carter in "Blood Ties")

Hospital fundraiser promises to be ‘new and different’
Posted By John Campbell

Campbellford – It’s a fundraiser unlike any other Campbellford Memorial Hospital Foundation has been involved in, an auction featuring the work of professional painters from across Canada – as well as those by prominent people not known for their painterly skills, including retired ballerina Victoria Tennant, fashion designer Simon Chang, and standup comic Brent Butt.

“We always do a golf tournament, we always send out direct mail, we always do newsletters,” CMH Foundation executive director Neil Hannam said, so “it’s kind of fun” to try something that’s “new and different.”

All proceeds from the The Other Canvas will go toward the foundation’s campaign to raise $2.5 million to install a CT scanner at the hospital later this year.

Sixty-one pieces of art have been created exclusively for the event which will take place Sept. 19 at Westben Barn Theatre. Among those making a contribution who are better known for their talent in other fields are Westben co-founders soprano Donna Bennett and pianist/composer Brian Finley, tenor Michael Burgess, dancer Rex Harrington and actors Chick Reid and Tom McCamus.

“We’ve got every kind of style, every kind of medium” – acrylics, oil, water colour and photographs, Hannam said in an interview last Thursday at a storefont on Bridge Street East where a preview of all but a few of the creations was given.

“We’ve got such a diversity of styles and materials that there’s something for everybody.”

Each artist was provided a canvas custom-made by Wayne Blakely of Coldwater to fit on a Northumberland easel chair. Neil Graham of Stone House Gardens in Warkworth designed the original prototype and William O’Kane, of O’Kane Fine Woodworking, also of Warkworth, produced the final version which can be used as a chair or as an easel to showcase the artist’s canvas.

The unique chair will be available for purchase after next month’s fundraiser.

Merle Garside, a retired architect who approached Hannam in July 2008 with a proposal to stage a art show as a fundraiser, said the invited artists “were given no restrictions whatsoever” as to subject matter, “it was totally up to them.”
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The idea was to have “each of the provinces represented,” she said.

“The public will have an opportunity to bid on well-known artists’ signature pieces as well as aspiring new artists ... (and) acquire one of these pieces at a price range that is very affordable,” Garside said..

© Community Press