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Art lovers get funding for gallery in their own tower block
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent13 Oct 2008
If you live in an East End tower block, then becoming the next Charles Saatchi may seem a little unlikely.
But yoga teacher Jana Appleyard, 39, who lives in Denning Point, Commercial Street, is getting the chance to see what being an art collector is like.
She has been lent a £395 limited edition print for a fortnight to help promote an Arts Council scheme aimed at making art-buying affordable.
The work, Robert Towne, 2006, by the painter Sarah Morris, is available at the Whitechapel Gallery.
And the gallery is one of nearly 250 across the country taking part in Own Art, which aims to help people buy pieces for themselves.
Through Own Art, participating galleries can offer interest-free loans of up to £2,000 to help members of the public purchase ceramics, jewellery, glass and photography as well as paintings and sculpture.
New galleries have just been added to the list and there are more than 30 in London, including the Whitechapel.
Mary-Alice Stack, of Arts Council England, said buying art need not be elitist or expensive. "Own Art helps you take art out of the galleries and straight into your home," she said.
More than 11,500 people have bought art worth around £9million since the scheme was launched four years ago, with about half the proceeds going to the artists.
Ms Appleyard, who volunteered to help publicise the initiative, is hooked.
"It's nice. I have lots of art students and artists I teach so they were all very pleased. I often thought I would never be able to afford to own a painting. But I'm going to have a look now," she said. "It's a good idea and it's interest-free. This is a picture I wouldn't normally have looked at but it's very interesting. And you see it from all kinds of angles doing yoga."
The Arts Council is also launching a new website which gives people the chance to design and curate a virtual collection of art from Own Art galleries around the country.
Miss Stack said: "By creating collections online, we hope that people will engage with their own unique artistic preferences and subsequently gain the confidence to consider starting a real collection of their own."
The amateur curator/collectors can then submit their "room" with the chance of winning £500 to buy a real piece of art for their home.
