Sitting Pretty

Unique chair-ity event raises funds for Museum garden project

What began with 30 vintage chairs matched to 30 County artists resulted in 30 beautifully painted works of art. On display for the first time Saturday, the public were able to view and bid on the chairs throughout the day—actually 36 chairs in total.

Sitting Pretty: A Chair-ity Auction was the culmination of many weeks of hard work by organizers and artists alike. Each redesigned and reinvented chair formed part of a silent auction Saturday at the Wellington Town Hall to help raise funds to complete the final instalment of a much-anticipated garden project.

The Friends of the Wellington Heritage Museum garden project, a volunteer-run group, have worked tirelessly since last October with various fundraising projects. They have watched the space behind the museum slowly transform into a new community heritage garden for all to enjoy.

Each unique chair married to each unique artist resulted in a bold, colourful and dynamic statement of the finest, funkiest and funniest collection of seating imaginable.

(L-R) Maggie Murdoch and Hannah Melnyk’s Not Just a Chair and Strawberry Social by Gerry Jenkinson formed part of the silent auction.

While most of the chairs on offer made for easy seating, a few were not suited to sitting at all. Several came with live plants and succulents such as Diane Cole’s Garden in the Chair Pretty and A Fairy Garden by Mary Brett. Peter Mennacher’s Kalamata had spiky almond halves on it and one came with a fat orange cat (Terry Culbert’s Fat Cat Sat) ensuring there was certainly no opportunity for sitting.

Gathered from roadsides, donated or found in attics, many of the artistcreated chairs were painted; some were upholstered, a few were adorned, (one used knitting), but all of the creations offered imaginative originality in spades. One chair came with candles, another with stones and one was growing ripening strawberries (Strawberry Social by Gerry Jenkinson).

Susan Moshynski painted Eggs in a Nest, Wendy Cliff painted ivy, Vicki Sharp chose a checkerboard pattern and Ron Menchetti kept it simple with Simply Red. Aiden Haley created The Faerie Moon, and Maggie Murdoch and Hannah Melnyk of Wellington Pottery fabricated Not Just a Chair.

The dazzling collection of whimsical designs ranged from handsome and outlandish to elegant and resplendent. All were colourful, playful and pleasing and, while some were impractical, all were individually and lovingly created by local-area artists.

One chair was very tiny and one was very tall. Stewart Jones’ four-legged stool was painted with a fox and Sam Sakr’s elaborate sculptural creation was a tilted, elevated garden chair of twigs and branches towering above all else.

Another creation was both a chair and a ladder (Make It Pretty donated by Dead People’s Stuff).

The audience favourite, voted by ballot throughout the day, was won by Andrew Csafordi with Split Rail Bench.

A live auction followed in the early evening as nine flamboyant chairs went to the highest bidders and for anyone wishing to acquire a unique piece of County art. It was an evening of excitement and thrills as auctioneer Boyd Sullivan humoured the crowd in an attempt to have folks part with their hard earned cash for the very worthy cause.

“You don’t know it yet, but you are going to buy a chair today,” said Sullivan as the auction began.

Among the nine chairs included in the live auction were Susan and Glen Wallis’s distorted black and white theatrical chair Please Take Your Seat, Brenda Little’s red guitar fabric chair and Rhonda Nolan’s flamboyant The Om Dharma Altar Chair.

A total of $3,600 was raised from both the silent and live auctions Saturday. “This will go a long way to purchasing the plants for our garden,” said Carmen Ellis-Toddington of The Friends of Wellington Heritage Museum.

The garden project has been many years in the thinking and has been made possible with donations from individuals and local service organizations as well as numerous fundraising events.

“We’ve been planning and fundraising for the garden for many years and to say we’re excited to unveil the garden to the community this month is an understatement,” said Ellis-Toddington. “The auction was part of our final fundraising push to bring the garden to life.”

A recent addition to the garden was the installation of a sculpture by Philippe Pallafray entitled Silent Expectation. Plantings in the garden will include heritage and native perennials and will be completed in the coming weeks by landscape architect Ben O’Brien of Wild by Design who donated his services for the project. The quiet and contemplative community space will also house four unique 19th-century benches which are currently undergoing restoration.

“The garden project has brought a breath of fresh air to this site and we are excited for the community to see and enjoy the final transformation,” said Jessica Chase, Assistant Curator with The County Museums.