News at a Glance

30 x 30 Exhibit and Auction a Huge Success!

Island Mountain Arts exceeded all expectations by raising $14,000 with its 30th Anniversary Exhibition and Auction called the 30 x 30 which ran July 20 to August 13, 2007.

Thirty-eight artists from across the country were involved in the 30 x 30, donating a work roughly 30" x 30" in size, which were exhibited at the Island Mountain Arts Gallery and then auctioned off in order to raise money to start an endowment fund to provide ongoing scholarships to IMA programs.

Our goal was to raise at least $10,000 so that we could apply to the BC Renaissance Fund, which will match monies raised to start endowments. Thanks to the generosity of the artists who participated and from the people who bid on the works we were able to well exceed our goal,  says Dennis Bogle, President of IMA.

Works from artists such as Robert Bateman, Paula Scott, Marie Nagel, Richard Reid, Ken Flett and a host of others were exhibited in the gallery and online at Levis Fine Art Auctions in Calgary, with final bids being placed at the end of the exhibition.

The exhibition and auction was one success among a number, which took place this year for Island Mountain Arts in its 30th year of operations. The award-winning ArtsWells Festival, which ran during the August Long Weekend, brought record numbers of people and artists to town in its fourth year.

Also in 2007 the Wells Artists’ Project was re-named to the Toni Onley Artists’ Project, in order to honour the renown BC painter and to signify the launching of the future project of the Toni Onley School, which plans to run eight month residencies in Wells for professional and emerging visual artists.

IMA also began working with the estate of beloved Cariboo painter and Cowboy Hall of Famer, Sonia Cornwall (1919 - 2006) and has created an annual scholarship in her name to provide one emerging Cariboo artist with the full tuition to attend the Toni Onley Artists’ Project. Watch for an exhibition of Sonia Cornwall’s work next summer in the IMA Gallery.

With a very successful 30th year under its belt the multi-facetted Island Mountain Arts is looking ahead to another great 30 years, continuing to build and promote arts and culture in Wells, the Cariboo region and the province of British Columbia.