Generous contributions from the arts community are on display for auction at Crate59, home of one of Cairns’ longest-running art collectives, reports Jonathan Strauss.
A special evening will be hosted at the gallery on May 12 at 6pm. It is an opportunity to purchase amazing local art, enjoy live jazz and drinks, and hear from firebrand Socialist Alliance candidate for Leichhardt, Pat O'Shane and Senate candidate Renee Lees.
"Our election campaign is about putting people and the planet before the big end of town. It's a common theme for everyone involved in this event," O'Shane told Green Left.
"I am blown away by the artwork donated by individual artists in this exhibition, showing both the diverse talent of Far North Queensland and its thriving community spirit.”
“Art communities and cooperatives like Crate59 have long been vital to movements for change," said Lees.
"They show us what a new future based on creativity, collaboration and local democratic economies could look like, and it looks really good."
O'Shane is a Kuku Yalanji woman, Australia's first Indigenous lawyer and magistrate and NAIDOC lifetime achievement awardee. She is running for the far-north Queensland seat of Leichhardt with Socialist Alliance.
The silent auction continues to 6pm May 13.
Works on auction are by established and emerging artists, and include paintings, hand-made and digital prints, photographs, sculpture made from Chillagoe marble, and works by a local blacksmith.