Inga Pullmann has sent me three faxes recently. The first written to Craig Reisinger of the Art for Life auction, and there were hand- written notes all over it to the different people to whom Inga had sent her fax.

Inga is a visual artist. Her letter addresses "extreme auction fatigue," citing concurrent visual aft auctions by Arts Umbrella, Art for Life, and the Vancouver Art Gallery-auctions undertaken by charities as fundraising events for various social causes or institutions.

Inga is concerned that the fundraising activities of these charities, no matter how worthy their cause, remove buyers from the art marketplace, establish low values for original art, and are successful at the expense of the contributing artists, many, of whom are at the bottom of the income pyramid.

Her second fax revealed how much of an effort Inga had put into her research on the subject of these particular visual art auctions as fundraisers. It contained financial and statistical information to underscore her concerns.

At the Vancouver Art Gallery, (VAG) auction on October 28th, there were 46 items listed, with an estimated value of $325,950. The estimated value of the 30 pieces donated for the VAG silent auction totaled 863,775. Together, the two VAG auctions put $389,725 worth of art on the market, with no money going to the creators of the work. The gross sales at these two VAG events was (in round figures) $350,000.

The Arts Umbrella auction on October 14th featured the work of 49 artists. The estimated value of the work submitted to that event was $203,575. The receipts from actual sales totalled $164,150. The Art for Life auction, on October 11, featured 31 artworks with an estimated value of $108,350. Actual sales totaled $88,900.

Inga also made note that in the Arts Umbrella auction, 15 items sold for more than their estimated value, one sold for its estimated value, and 33 sold for an amount below their estimated value. At the Art for Life auction, 11 works sold at a level above their estimated value, 1 sold at its estimated value, and 21 items failed to earn their value. (As we go to press, I do not know how many VAG auction items earned more or less than their estimated value.)

The VAG's $350,000, plus $88,900 from Art for Life, plus $164,150 from Arts Umbrella, means that these three events alone generated $603,050 in art sales in Vancouver-all in the month of October.

lnga is essentially asking, "Are art auctions good?" and, "For whom?"

Should artists participate? Are not individual's free to do as they like? Should the artists who cannot afford to participate be value-judging the actions of their peers? Should we all stop supporting causes if we share Inga's concerns?

Here's what I think: I think Inga's right. The artists often "lose" financially in these fundraising auctions and events. But they may gain emotionally or spiritually from their acts of generosity, and how do you measure intrinsic reward against financial return?

You don't t hear a lot about engineers, veterinarians, lawyers or postal workers collectively raising money, You don't hear about other professional collectives undertaking public good. I can think of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, I can think of firemen selling calendars for hospital burn units, but what do pharmacists do for us collectively? What do plumbers do? The Teamsters? What do the CFL or NHL players do as a collective for our society?

Artists, however, are "out there" for environmental, education, health and cultural causes. Artists raise enormous sums of monev, attract immeasurable publicity and expand public awareness for numerous social concerns.

The art auctions speak to the social responsibility of visual artists. There are countless "benefits" by performing artists, not just collectively, but by discipline. I can think of Equity Fight's Aids, the international effort of actors and other performers to raise funds, Dancers for Life who also raise money for Aids. And musicians! Think of just one event, Live Aid, and what was done globally for famine in Ethiopia. And there have been countless other "spin off" concerts following the model established by Bob Geldoff for Live Aid.

Artist's give. Artist's care. And that is why I am so proud to live and work amongst them. Auctions seem to be the way visual artists collectively give back to society.

Yes, it can be hard on the individual. Yes, the poor support the poor in many cases. And yes, artists should be paid and respected. But if we always and only think of ourselves, our society will not advance. Artists, clearly, are leaders. Our leadership comes from our compassion. We are open, honest, feeling people, in my experience, giving, each in our own way.

Tangential to the moral issue around auctions is the information revealed in Inga's faxes about the size of the visual art market in Vancouver.

Besides the auctions discussed above, during roughly the same time period, the Contemporary Art Gallery, (CAG) had an auction and the Federation of Canadian Artists had their very large auction AIM for Arts exhibition and sale on Vancouver's Granville Island.

AIM for Arts was not an auction. Artists got their asking prices and paid a very conservative commission. At the CAG, artists can either donate work or share in the sale with the gallery. When you add the gross sales of the CAG auction ($65,275) and AIM for Arts ($66,400) to the total sales of the three auctions discussed above ($603,050), you get an impression of a mighty healthy visual art market here in Vancouver: $734,725 over a six week period at only five events.

This realization, in turn, leads me to wonder if the greatest impact of auctions is not felt by the commercial gallery owners who see their buyers spending money at events, rather than in their galleries. The commercial galleries are sales centres for many local artists and are an important part of every visual arts community.