Clearly some follow-up is required to my recent editorial on donating art to charities (Rules for Artists Donating Art to Auctions, May 2006). It generated a lot of mail and I thank all of you who wrote.

Gabriella Solti wrote to tell me about the auction she and Susanna Strem organized for the University Women's Club of Vancouver and the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre this past April. "We had an innovative approach that I want to share with you because it can set an example for other auction organizers: We did not ask artists or galleries to donate... . Instead we offered our own commissions (seller and buyer commission) as a donation to the beneficiaries... . Still we ended up selling over $70,000.00 worth of art and 10% seller commission and 10% buyer commission goes a long way." (Gabriella and all other staff were volunteers.)

"Many galleries (including very reputable galleries on Granville Street and downtown) and artists still offered us 10% of the sale price as a donation to the charities. It was a very nice added bonus," she wrote. "We had a professional appraiser volunteering his time in exchange of tax receipts to assess the value of the work."

Gabriella's example is a good one and I thank her for writing. Many artists who wrote to me raised another excellent point. Sarah Amos was the first to point out that my editorial did not mention something very important: "Robert (Amos) and I have found that all charities... that ask for our artwork donations always use as a lure the promise of a tax receipt. I find that they (and many artists) are not aware that if we use the tax receipt as a deduction on our income tax, we also have to include the same amount in income." In other words, a tax receipt is not a real benefit for artists.

Lori Goldberg wrote to me about a point I always consider to be important, and that is access to the name of the buyer of works donated for auction. "Recently I donated to the VGH Foundation auction "Evening with Diana Krall." I found out that my painting that retailed for $500.00 went to a bidder for $2500.00 That is 5x the amount of the retail value! I (asked) if they would give me the name of the person who purchased my work... . They said that (the) privacy act prevents them (from passing) on the name. I wrote a letter of thanks to the purchaser and the foundation will mail it out on my behalf. I am interested to see if anything comes out of it. I would really like to know who bought the work."

I lamented the demise of Artichoke Magazine in this space last year, so I was delighted to discover that its former editor and publisher, Paula Gustafson, is back in the visual arts editing business. Paula has taken over as Galleries West's editor. She started in June and is filling in while the permanent editor is on another assignment in Paris. Paula wrote to me to say: "I think Opus readers would like to know about GW's web reviews. They're comparable to newspaper reviews in that they're timely (posted within days of each exhibition opening at www.gallerieswest.ca), they focus on shows in the four western provinces, and are written by some of our best art critics. Better still, there's a free service that emails newly-posted reviews to online subscribers."

One recent email to me came from former Opus Langley manager, Kelaine Devine. "A high school art teacher in the States is being suspended for suggesting to students that they should maybe take figure drawing classes to improve their drawing skills. As you might know, I organize a figure drawing group in Langley and we regularly get high school students drawing with us with their parents' permission. So that a teacher would be suspended for suggesting taking life drawing is very irritating... ."

Kelaine is referring to the case of Peter Panse, a high school art teacher in Middletown, NY. Last December Mr. Panse was suspended from his teaching job for suggesting that his advanced students take figure drawing courses that included nude figure drawings. He will face hearings and, depending on their outcome, he may be fired, ending a 25-year teaching career. Mr. Panse is a National Board Certified Teacher (in Adolescent and Young Adult Art), the highest level of certification that a teacher can achieve in America. The courses he recommended had adult supervision and required parental approval for high school students. To learn more, visit: www.artrenewal.org/articles/2006/Peter_Panse/case1.asp

The last correspondence I want to share with you came from a lawyer friend of mine who works with artists. She shares with me a profound distaste for what the press calls the "soccer mom" tax credit of the recent federal budget. She and I have signed an online petition that reads, in part, as follows:

The decision by the Government of Canada in its most recent budget to give a tax credit to the parents of children taking part in organized sports (the so-called "soccer mom" credit) is fundamentally unfair. It provides a subsidy to one group of citizens by making a value judgement about the activities in which they choose to involve their children. The implicit assumption is that involvement in traditional sports has a higher value than taking piano or dance lessons, taking classes in the visual and dramatic arts, singing in a youth choir or taking part in debating or chess clubs. This is unsupportable in fact and undemocratic in its effects. Parents who choose to spend their money on developing the aesthetic, cultural and artistic gifts of their children should not be discriminated against in favour of parents who choose to support their childrens' athletic abilities.