Illustration by Gail Geltner for the first Canadian Art Gallery Hop, in 1996.
From all the comments, the first gala was a big success—in spite of the fact that it was less than totally elegant.
First of all it was packed. We set up tables everywhere, in the gallery, the office, the living room. I had my furniture shipped out to storage. It was certainly very friendly in that people were just squeezed together and seemed to enjoy it.
I remember the art crowd we know and love was there. I particularly remember Austin Cooper, who was an art collector and a very sweet man, and a very big man. And he was on a rather small chair in my living room. I remember it well.
We had closed-circuit TVs for the auction.
So it was a success, but I just about had a nervous breakdown. The fuses were blown, things were not cooking. There were bits of cold salmon all over my living room. But it all worked fine.
I think we had 250 people for a sit-down dinner. So it has certainly grown in 20 years, like a wild mushroom. It’s been a real pleasure to see.
My great fun afterwards was that Sarah Milroy and Richard Balfour and Jeff Beattie took me to New York for the weekend as a thank-you. And we had a great time. It didn’t mean that I would want to repeat the experience, but it was a pleasure.
It’s funnier in retrospect than it was that day. I hate to run into serious problems that I can’t fix! In fact everyone was an incredibly good sport about it. And it didn’t turn them off from doing this over and over again for 20 years.
Click here for more information on this year’s Gala.
