Christmas is almost here. So what can arts lovers give each other?
Subscriptions to galleries, theatres or institutions are obvious choices, but how about including something truly amazing with your worthy arts charity Christmas card this year?
By far the most cutting edge way to buy your art for Christmas is Santa’s Ghetto, where the artistic underground join the mainstream shopping throngs each year. Santa’s Ghetto has been running for several years in crazy places, like an old porn shop on Charing Cross Road. Open until 23rd December, this year the artists responsible for Pictures On Walls are gathered together in a shop on Oxford Street – squatting according to some rumours – selling their graffiti style art in what used to be a Clarks shoe store (you can also buy online).
The work of 20 artists including big names like Banksy, Faile, sickboy and 3D, are for sale in the alternative “squat art concept store” at very affordable prices. Prints and other artworks are available from £35 up to £500. Quoted in the Guardian earlier this month, the elusive Banksy said he “felt the spirit of Christmas was being lost… It was becoming increasingly uncommercialised and more and more to do with religion so we decided to open our own shop and sell pointless stuff you didn’t need.”
While the queues to get in have stretched down Oxford Street in recent weeks, not everyone finds it amusing. Spiked argues that “with a slogan on the window screaming ‘Work. Consume. Die.’, a display of a stabbed teddy bear with the stuffing falling out and a crudely made puppet of Santa bouncing up a sign announcing that ‘Christmas is cancelled’, you can go in and feel thoroughly bad for half an hour while being lectured by various artworks about the disgusting values of your society. You can then validate those disgusting Western values by forking out hundreds of pounds on a piece of ‘affordable art terrorism’.”
But if you are into Guerilla art, and if you’re really lucky, you might find a doctored Paris Hilton CD for that special someone, still lurking in a record store after Banksy took some artistic license with around 500 of them in September, changing the cover art and track listings in HMV and Virgin. It’s current asking price on ebay is US$699.00.
If you’re a struggling artist who’s really on a budget (or subversively opposed to expenditure on Christmas cheer), try downloading some wallpaper for your computer or printing out some artwork for a friend from the prolific Banksy’s website – they’re free. As the artist himself writes: “Prints look best when done on gloss paper using the company printer ink when everyone else is at lunch.”
While Paintings On Walls are giving artists an outlet for their work and access to a public who seem more than willing to support them, if you’d rather your art came with a tax deductible charity invoice, The Independent’s annual appeal has 43 potential presents that money usually cannot buy. This year’s online auction is “an appeal for an abandoned people” and funds will be split between three charities: Merlin, The Welfare Association and Anti-Slavery International.
And there is a lot for arts and media lovers to get excited about. Spend a day at the paper watching it all unfold, be interviewed by Deborah Ross, power lunch with multi-award-winning editor Simon Kelner at The Ivy, attend a major book launch followed by dinner at the Groucho Club, review a rock gig for publication, attend the glittering West End premiere with Arts Editor, David Lister, have a drawing class with Tracey Emin, or take home a Damien Hirst signed metal printing plate which produced the front page for Bono’s RED edition of The Independent.
The only drawback is that it’s not cheap. You might need a spare thousand pounds or two to lavish on a special person or yourself. Last year the lowest winning bid was for a night on the town with celebrity Pandora editor Oliver Duff that sold for £490, and the highest price paid was £4500 for an art lesson with Tracey Emin. For those who cannot summon these amounts but believe in the cause, you can still make a donation of any amount through their website. Auction bids close on Thursday.
Donations and sponsorship mean you can give a gift that keeps on giving to artists and art organisations themselves – check out the possibilities at www.uksponsorship.com or contact your favourite gallery, organisation, artist or theatre for ideas.
But if you are after something material you can wrap, rather than a warm fuzzy feeling, The Telegraph’s recent feature on how to buy art for under a grand shows you how to pick up a bargain from EH Shepard, the illustrator for Winnie The Pooh, on sale through the Fine Art Company until the 21st December. And you can pick up less notable artists work at local markets, or from specialist print stores and second hand book dealers at really affordable prices.
Local Galleries and art schools are also a good hunting ground for art that might be cheap now, but has potential to increase in price in the future. For instance, Canterbury Christ Church University’s Sidney Cooper Gallery is selling artwork from students and local artists from as little as £24. And the Millenium Gallery in Sheffield hosts Christmas Crackers annually, selling innovative gifts ideas produced by designers and makers from within and beyond the region.
Of course if you’re still stuck, you could try logging on to the major galleries, arts bodies and theatres for wonderful tickets, subscriptions and memberships. Membership of the V&A starts from £40 or try the Barbican for the widest array of arts events in theatre, art, dance, film and music from £20.
And this feature wouldn’t be complete without mentioning that an Arts Hub membership will keep your likeminded arts friends amused for a whole year. Membership is just £45 per year or £28 for full time students, and they won’t miss a single beat of what’s going on in the lively arts scene in the UK in 2007.
