Canada-wide Art Auction for Old Growth Raises $35,000 for NBSF!
Featured artwork from this year’s auction
November 1, 2023
The Nature-Based Solutions Foundation is ecstatic to announce that the second ever Art Auction for Old Growth, an annual Canada-wide event organized by painter Kyle Scheurmann, has raised over $35,000 for our projects to protect endangered old-growth forests in BC! This year’s event was a wonderful accomplishment thanks to the unified and unrelenting determination of passionate Canadian artists working to make a difference for old-growth forests.
Based in Ontario and represented by the prestigious Bau-Xi Art Gallery, with locations in Toronto and Vancouver, Kyle Schuermann launched this annual event last year with a vision of harnessing the power of Canadian art and its ability to inspire advocacy for nature to direct the attention of eastern Canadians towards a seemingly western cause: Protecting what remains of BC’s imperiled old-growth forests. Because of these forests’ incredible ability to store vast amounts of carbon and support rich biodiversity, serving as globally significant ecosystems, Kyle hopes that this event can both raise funds for old growth while teaching Canadians everywhere about the national importance of this cause.
Kyle’s goal for this second annual event was to grow the cross-country alliance of cultural practitioners who are advocating for the protection of ancient forests, both in their own work and through their great generosity to NBSF.
Left: Auction organizer Kyle Scheurmann painting ; Right: Kyle and NBSF National Coordinator Hania Eve Peper
This year, 22 Canadian artists participated in total, including influential artists in some of the biggest collections in Canada, such as Steve Driscoll, Anne Griffiths, and Kim Dorland. Thanks to their participation and support, the 2023 Art Auction for Old Growth raised about $10,000 more than last year!
The auction also welcomed a much more international audience, with bidders from 20 different locations across 3 countries!
All funds raised will go towards the Nature-Based Solution Foundation’s project with the Kanaka Bar Indian Band to support their efforts to protect approximately 320-square km through their T'eqt'aqtn Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA). This incredible IPCA will help safeguard a portion of the least represented ecosystem in BC’s protected areas system, the Interior Douglas-Fir zone. It will also support 42 species at risk and contain around 125-square km of some of the rarest old-growth forests in BC — an area larger than the city of Vancouver!
From end-to-end, NBSF is working to provide Kanaka Bar with the key support needed for establishing this protected area, including by helping fill critical conservation funding gaps that have historically hindered protection of the most endangered old-growth forests in BC.
This IPCA will serve as a critical model project that can be replicated in communities all across BC. Thanks to our success so far, we are already working on similar initiatives with half-a-dozen First Nations communities, including the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation for their incredible 650-square km Salmon Parks Initiative!
As a new organization, contributions through charitable events like Kyle’s play a big role in enabling us to drive progress forward as we secure more opportunities to protect old-growth forests. On behalf of everyone at NBSF, we want to send a big Thanks to Kyle and all participating artists for their generous support of this very special initiative!
If you missed out on this event and are looking for another way to meaningfully contribute to protecting old-growth forests in BC, please consider making a tax-deductible donation towards our efforts to establish new protected areas for these ancient ecosystems:
If you’re interested in following next year’s Art Auction for Old Growth, follow @artauctionforoldgrowth on Instagram for the latest updates!