Melbournian’s wear thick framed glasses with pride and take their visual art very seriously. From the suits who run the National Victorian Gallery to the kids who organise independent art exhibitions, Melbourne is almost certainly the Australian art capital.


But like most businesses, the art world struggles with increasing rents and financial woes. Government grants and support from Victorian Arts does contribute, but it’s nothing like what’s needed to stay afloat. That means artists and gallery owners and operators are forced to come up with innovative and creative new ways to raise funds.

One way, developed by SEVENTH gallery in Fitzroy on Gertrude Street, was to host a exhibition with 100 artworks from local artists.

Entitled the Super Sell-Out Art Sale, the idea was to sell 100 tickets for 100 artworks to the public. At 7pm on Monday, Dec 14, the ticket exchange opened and tickets were replaced with stickers, which were placed on the unclaimed artwork of your choice. At 8pm, the sell-out-sale ended and the winners took home their newly acquired artwork.

Around 60-70 people turned out eagerly eyeing off the piece of their choice. Each piece had been produced by local artists using mediums such as hand made jewelry, paintings, sketchers, textile artwork and photography. Visitors were invited to view the works over two days, before scrambling to nominate the piece of their choice. Many of the works were by emerging artists and with a keen eye and enough research you could walk home with a gem.

There’s no coordinating of the event it’s literally first-in-first served. Event organiser Emma Morgan, told the Mooks Report that last year was a raging success and this year was expected to be similar.

A win-win situation for everyone as ticket holders scored an art piece to hang on their wall and Seventh would have made enough money to keep rent prices down in 2010.

Seventh is a two room gallery space run by Melbourne based contemporary artists and volunteers including, Emma Morgan, Andy Hutson, Amy-Jo Jory, Kim Jaeger, Pip Wallis, Peter Thomas, Jonas Ropponen, Simon Zoric and Rebecca Agnew. The Super Sell-Out Art Sale was introduced for the first time last year and raised almost $4000 for the continuation of the gallery and as a way to support local artists.





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