Аукцион Splash Art Auction соберет 2 млн долларов для поддержки искусств в Ванкувере

by Nathan Caddell on September 8th, 2026 at 7:52 AM 1 of 2 2 of 2 Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.  Sign up for our free newsletter. The Splash Art Auction has been part of Arts Umbrella almost as long as the organization, which was founded in 1979, has been around. From the very beginning, it was an artist-led endeavour that was meant to help raise funds to keep the not-for-profit arts education centre afloat. “They were artists that were icons and still are in this province and country,” Arts Umbrella president and CEO Paul Larocque says about luminaries like Gordon Smith and Jack Shadbolt. “It was their leadership to start it, and it really was our very first fundraising initiative.” Other artists like Pat O’Hara and Bill Reid got involved early as well, selling off their work in the name of supporting what Arts Umbrella was doing. The first Splash Art Auction, in the early 1980s, brought in around $20,000 (some $70,000 in today’s economy) and was held at the organization’s then-studio. “A moving truck would come to Granville Island about a week before the gala, and we would clear everything out of the building to set it up,” Larocque says with a laugh. This year’s edition of Splash is expected to bring in some $2 million for Arts Umbrella, which relies on donor support for around 80 percent of its work. Splash has become one of the biggest, if not the biggest, charitable art auctions in the country. The auction will open to public exhibition on September 8 until October 1 at the Pendulum Gallery before it moves across the street to the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver for the main event on October 3. Those in attendance will be able to bid on a variety of works by dozens of acclaimed artists from across the country, like celebrated photographers Greg Girard and Edward Burtynsky, painters Andrew Dadson and Landon Mackenzie, and young romantic Angela Grossmann. Haida artist Don Yeomans will close out the auction with one of his iconic masks. “It’s called Happy Beaver —it’s just the most extraordinary mask,” Larocque says. It also has some hidden meaning behind it. In 1997, two years after he launched his eponymous gallery on Granville Street, Douglas Reynolds gave his first gift to Splash—a piece by Yeomans. “Doug announced earlier this year that he’s going to be closing his gallery and really putting to an end a remarkable stretch of representing artists and promoting Pacific Northwest art,” Larocque says. “So this year we’ll be honouring Doug, and I think there’s something really beautiful about that.” The event itself will have around 600 attendees and includes a dinner, live auction, and performances by Arts Umbrella’s dance company and musical theatre troupe. Supporters can also bid online at the more than 60 pieces up for auction on the web. Dadson, a multidisciplinary artist who graduated from Emily Carr in 2003, is donating a piece to Splash this year called Pink Mountaintops (not to be confused with Stephen McBean’s rock band). “It comes out of my ongoing interest in landscape and the ways we perceive and interpret the natural environment,” he says. Pink Mountaintops was made with a palette knife and layers of paint. “I’m interested in the physical qualities of painting and in how colour and the handling of paint can shift our perception of a landscape,” Dadson says. Vancouver-based Dadson has been a steady contributor to Splash over the years, and relishes the chance to support youth arts programs. “It feels very meaningful to contribute to an organization that gives young people the opportunity to engage seriously with art,” he says. “Creativity is very important in life.”  The Splash Art Auction takes place on October 3 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. The auction is open to public exhibition from September 8 to October 1 at the Pendulum Gallery. Nathan Caddell Nathan is the editor in chief of the Georgia Straight. He's been working for the publication on and off since 2013. Go to profile