Niagara agency banking on Chair Affair
The chairs were so ugly, Niagara Furniture Bank probably couldn’t give them away for free.
But the organization that assists people in need has counted on a team of a dozen Niagara artists and five mayors to transform those chairs into works of art that are worth thousands of dollars.
For the second time since 2013, Niagara Furniture Bank is running its Chair Affair Auction to raise funds for the organization, by auctioning off old chairs that have been transformed into masterpieces.
Cassidy Fenton, who heads up the furniture bank’s board of directors, said the chairs being used for Thursday’s event — 6:30 p.m., at Hernder Estate Wines in St. Catharines — “aren’t ones that we would actually donate back to the families that are in need.”
“They’re just essentially wasting space,” she said.
For Ridgeway artists Michelle Anne Morrissey, turning an old discarded chair into a work of art was precisely the challenge she was looking for.
“I love being forced to work around the shape of a thing. I thought cool, ‘I’ve never painted a chair … other than painting a chair,’” she said. “Using the chair as a canvass per se, I thought was an interesting challenge and I love to be pushed.”
She was also inspired to participate because “it’s a fantastic cause.”
“I try to volunteer and get involved in charity events as much as I can,” she said.
Fenton said she’s heard similar enthusiasm from other artists participating in the event.
“We’re really excited,” she said. “There’s huge momentum, not only in the artist community but in the business community as a whole.”
The sky’s the limit for the artists — almost.
“There’s absolutely zero limitations, as long as it’s a functioning piece of art at the end of the day. We have no criteria. No sort of boundaries that they have to stay within. As long as it can hold someone’s weight, and they’re not screwing up the integrity of the chair’s structure,” she said. “We love to see the creativity come out and what their vision is.”
While Morrissey’s plan for her chair is certainly creative, she said it wouldn’t likely be a very comfortable place to sit when she’s done with it.
“I want to make it less functional and more of a showpiece,” she said. “It’s more sculptural than something you’d want to sit on … I don’t think it’d be very comfortable.”
Morrissey arrived at the furniture bank several weeks ago with a friend and fellow artist Barbara-Jean Lovell to pick out chairs.
“We were giddy,” she said. “We couldn’t believe the options we had. We took longer than we thought to pick through the collection, and really just waited to see which piece spoke to us.”
Morrissey found a “classic 1960s dining room chair” with nothing particularly special about it.
“I saw the potential for what I was thinking.”
She planned to cover the chair with the pages of books, and sculptural elements like driftwood and wire and “a few other things.”
“I’ll see what evolves,” she said. “It looks fantastic in my head, so we’ll see if it actually evolves the way I envision.”
This year, organizers invited Niagara mayors to participate as well.
Mayors Jim Diodati from Niagara Falls, Pat Darte from Niagara-onthe-Lake, Walter Sendzik from St. Catharines, Frank Campion from Welland and April Jeffs from Wainfleet are taking part. Fenton is not expecting the mayors to have sat on their laurels when it came to creating their chairs.
“We know that the mayors like to razz one another. Mayors Diodati and Sendzik are always giving each other the gears,” she said. “They’re going to be pulling all the stops to make their chairs the biggest and the best and all that fun stuff. We want them to participate, but we also want their chairs to bring in money because the whole point is that it’s a fundraiser for Niagara Furniture Bank.”
Fenton said it’s fun for the artists to have their creations showcased alongside the chairs being created by Niagara mayors.
The organization brought in $14,000 during the last Chair Affair four years ago, including funds derived from sponsors. Fenton said she hopes to beat that amount this year, even if it’s only by a few bucks.
“But even if we brought in $10,000, I think everybody would be super happy with the contribution and support from the community.”
She said one of the chairs that brought in the highest bids during that event was re-upholstered in pink and black “that was just dynamite.” The artist was inspired by a friend who lost their battle to breast cancer.
“It was neat to see their visions come to life,” she said, adding that chair sold for about $1,000.
Another work of art started out as “a regular chair like you would find in your grandparents back porch.” An artist transformed it into an outdoor landscape, “with butterflies and vines, and it was just beautiful and bright and just absolutely gorgeous.”
Fenton said although the inaugural event was “more grassroots” than she hopes Thursday’s auction will be, it still managed to garner sponsorships including from Niagara’s casinos.
“We’re excited to see the casinos back on board as out title sponsor, and we’re hosting it again at Hernder Estate Wines,” she said.
This year, with new artists participating, “we have no idea what to expect.”