At Art Center, Annual Sale is About Being ‘Drawn’ to a Work

At the Main Line Art Center in Haverford one recent spring evening, Executive Director Judy Herman was kind enough to give Patch a personal tour of the Center’s Annual Fine Arts Sale, which runs through May 25. She also gave us carte blanche on taking photos of the many art works adorning every single wall.

Of course, there’s no justice in the photos—not these photos, anyway—because the vibrancy, the temperature, and the presence of the works comes only with proximity. The Center, with its intimate lighting and its open, "This Old House"-style friendliness, can evoke a genuine, big-museum kind of hush. And some of the more fascinating pieces in the current exhibit and sale can bring about that familiar, leaning-forward, absorbed in another world kind of examination.

That was the case the night we were there, when Herman also showed the collections to Linda Louhorn of Roxborough and Nadia Kunz of Haverford, friends and fellow art lovers both.

“The important thing is to be drawn to something and to think about why you like it,” Herman said. The Fine Arts Sale “has become well known because everything is for sale—it’s our fundraiser.

“It’s really art for your home or office. We want people to find their own taste. All this work is by professional artists, unique, one-of-a-kind.”

There are a few sculptures in the show, but most of the works are “2-D”—oils, acrylics, photoscreens, framed mixed media, etc.

The artists are well known locally, but are not necessarily members or students of the Center, Herman explained. “We hang people by their work in this show, so people get to see a body of work, and get to know an artist’s style.”

Prices range from as low as $100 for “bin work” (unframed but matted) and up to about $3,500. Click here for a list of all featured artists on display at the Annual Fine Arts Sale, as well as a detailed collection of photographs.

The center’s next exhibit, in June, will be called “Unframed, Uncorked,” and consist of “artists not as well known” who are selling their work at what Herman calls “a very, very reasonable price.”