"Vote For Us" - yours for just £ 54,000.00

I'm not backward in coming forward.

I recently sent an email to the Honorable Melanie Joly - Minister of Canadian Heritage offering her; or to be more accurate - the Canadian government,  my painting "Vote for Us" for £ 54,000.00 GBP.

I'll be honest - I wasn't expecting a reply - but via the Canadian government's Ministerial Correspondence Directorate , I was given a polite and encouraging response.

My favourite part of the response was this...

I am then encouraged to approach the National Gallery of Canada regarding the sale.

As brush-offs go it's rather a nice one.

So the history behind this...

On a whim or something like it, I decided that I would try and sell one of my pieces well above and beyond my normal asking price to one of the Governments of the world's top 10 economies (or a national collection). I picked "Vote for Us" as it's broadly political (and I'm approaching politicians). I also felt it fits with the current global political instability and increasing polarisation.

I chose £ 54,000 as my asking price on the following basis.

1. £ 27,000 (half the sum) is the current average annual earnings for an individual within the UK. That bit's for me. It guarantees me an income for a year - it's not greedy.
2. £ 27,000 would go to an arts-based community organisation or charity within Canada
3. I would agree to promote - for 12 months (with agreed weekly hours) Canadian arts and culture on social media channels. So - some of that £ 27.000 for me would be earned income.

I will be approaching the National Gallery of Canada as the next step, then - if I'm unsuccessful there- I'll move onto economy number 9.

So possibly - next stop Italy.

I'll be blogging on progress as I go. If you have any contacts or suggestions let me know by messaging me here or commenting on this blog.

I'd appreciate it if you could share this blog as well - and see where it gets