Given the fact that The Discerning Eye exhibition receives submissions from all over Britain and Ireland, the directors have been keen to start a newsletter as such a publication offers the opportunity to provide information about our activities to a greater number of people than is possible in the pages of our annual exhibition catalogue.

The launch of our newsletter coincides with a number of other exciting Discerning Eye 'firsts' which have taken place over the past twelve months and can be read about in this issue.

The Discerning Eye is an educational charity established in 1990 to encourage a wider understanding and appreciation of the visual arts, and to stimulate debate about the place and purpose of art in our society, and the contribution each one of us can make to its development.

The centrepiece of The Discerning Eye has been and will remain its annual exhibition at The Mall Galleries, London SW1 in November. With a size limit of 20" and work selected according to the personal taste of two artists, two critics and two collectors for their own sections of the exhibition - The Discerning Eye exhibition is unique. Not only a showcase for artists to sell their work (all works in the exhibition must be for sale), this annual exhibition is also crucial to the survival of the charity as a whole.

 
 
 
ARTIST'S PRESENTATION TO ING
John Orbell and Nick Cowan receive paintings on behalf of ING.
On Friday 15 April 2002, the people Johnny Jonas painted during his residency gathered for his handing over of the works to ING.
See pages 4-5 
 
 

The strong reputation of the exhibition coupled with the domestic scale and price of the works makes it a very appealing event for corporate entertaining. Consequently, each year one of our main objectives is to find a commercial sponsor who will provide a level of sponsorship that will largely cover the cost of mounting the annual exhibition. Once this has been achieved, the charity can use any income generated from the commission it takes from the sale of works to fund its other charitable activities. In addition, corporate sponsorship enables us to apply for special project funding from organisations such as Arts and Business. Arts and Business have been particularly supportive of Discerning Eye over recent years which has been invaluable to our development and is much appreciated.

Without corporate sponsorship there would almost certainly be no exhibition. Consequently, it seems appropriate at this point to say a big thank you both to our previous sponsors and our current sponsor ING whose enthusiastic support of the exhibition continues and now extends to several innovative Arts and Business funded projects which you can read about overleaf.

Given the limited funds, our Board of Directors and Educational Advisory Committee have quite a job balancing ambition with resource. That said, we are happy with the progress we are making and hope that when you read about the growing number of activities Discerning Eye has initiated, you will be too.

 

Copyright © 2002-2010 The Discerning Eye  ~  Web site by Shepperton Software