La Fecundidad by Salvador Dali will hang in Gallery 244 in Brooklyn on Saturday as part of the Queens Coast Art Tour. Photo courtesy of Sue and Chres Jensen

It’s the third year for the Queens Coast Art Tour and studio rally, but it will be the first year that people will be able to see a piece by Salvador Dali at one of the galleries.

Gallery 244 owners Sue and Chres Jensen bought a signed Dali in September and they plan to display it at their gallery in Brooklyn starting Saturday to coincide with the art tour.

Called La Fecundidad or Fertility, it’s a sterling silver relief from 1977. It’s signed by the Spanish surrealist, weighs just 249 grams, and measures 18 by 24 centimetres.

It was part of a limited run created for American Express as a promotional item for some cardholders.

The couple are in Toronto for six months while Chres awaits surgery. They told QCCR this week that they bought it from their friend Doug Peterson in Burlington, Ont., who has owned it since the ‘70s. 

They thought it would be a great way to help promote the art tour and Queens County artists.

“We knew we weren’t going to be there for the art tour and we wanted to send something back to Nova Scotia that would align our artists with a master,” Sue says. “I’m hoping that people come to see it and enjoy the work.”

“It’s kind of a draw like a bit of a fish hook so that people will see a piece by a well-known artist, and that will maybe introduce them to some of the local artists there,” Chres says.

“So that will create some curiosity and some buzz and that’s what we’re hoping to do and hopefully give the art scene in Liverpool and Brooklyn a boost.”

Sue says the piece will be hung differently than other artwork in the gallery. She says they’re not concerned about security.

“It’s gonna be hung in a little different way on the wall, but no, we know where we live and we want people to enjoy seeing it.”

After the art tour, she says they’ll store it in a secure place until next spring when they reopen the gallery.

The back of a piece by Salvador Dali bought by Sue and Chres Jensen of Gallery 244 in Brooklyn. Photo: Sue Jensen

Gallery 244 features work by Chres and other local artists. 

He says the Dali, which he estimates is worth around $5,000, will help add to the eclectic nature of their space.

“Our gallery is kind of diverse but we are more contemporary. We have abstract artists and cubist artists. I guess I’d put myself in that category. We try to offer something different to the public. Some people want to have something a little different and more striking in their personal collection of art.”

Sue says their friends have been looking after the gallery for them while they’re in Toronto.

“It’s exciting to give back to the community. The artists and musicians have been watching the gallery for us and working, so it’s just something to send back to them to say thank you.” 

The Queens Coast Art Tour is on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to the Salvador Dali piece and other work at Gallery 244 in Brooklyn, the tour features artisans at work all over Queens County. You can meet artists in their own workshops or at three public sites – The Astor Theatre, Coastal Queens Place or White Point Beach Resort.

More information is available on the Queens Coast Art Tour Facebook page.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Scot Slessor at his stained glass studio SAS Glass, just off Main Street in Liverpool. Slessor is one of the organizers of the Queens Coast Art Tour on June 22 and 23. (Rick Conrad)

Liverpool stained glass artist Scot Slessor wants the Queens Coast Art Tour to be memorable.

But he also wants the map for the tour to be just as unforgettable, and useful. Last year, he recruited Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman to help him with a video explaining how to make a paper airplane out of the map.

Obviously making a paper airplane isn’t the map’s most important function. In fact, Slessor wants people to unfold it to reveal the many Queens County artisans listed there and pay them a visit during the Queens Coast Art Tour.

The map plots all participating artisans and businesses, with QR codes that link to their websites or social media accounts.

Slessor owns SAS Glass in downtown Liverpool. He and some other local artisans got together last year to form the Queens County Arts and Crafts Society, taking over from the Queens Arts Council. 

One of their first projects was to create an art map and studio tour. That happened last October, and it included almost 25 artisans from Liverpool to Western Head to Port Medway.

This year, it’s expanded to more than 40 artists, shops and popups all over Queens County. And there will be two chances to participate, in June and October.

The first one is coming up on June 22 and 23. The tour runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

Slessor says it’s all about promoting Queens County as an arts destination, and about artisans opening up their studios or demonstrating their craft to local residents and visitors.

“I’ve been on a ton of these studio tours,” Slessor said in a recent interview.

“What I’ve told everybody, you’re just not another sale. Just don’t put stuff on a table. If you’re painting, paint. I’m glass, I’ll be doing something with glass those days. People can come in, I can show them what I do, what the materials are, how I play with them. That has to be there, because people do find that interesting. … We need to be different. Everybody does craft sales up and down the shore. So what’s the difference? I think the difference should be come on down, we’re throwing some pottery, we’re making some jewelry, you can see what we’re doing.”

Slessor says last October’s art tour was a success for many of the artists, some of whom were surprised by how many people dropped by to see them in action.

“I had 30 people each day in here. All I did was gab all day to people. And then I talked to other people who never really opened their studio and they said, ‘I can’t believe all these people showed up to my studio.’ So, it was kind of cool.

“You might show one person your studio and have a cup of coffee, but when you have 20 people rolling through in a day, it is kind of neat.”

In addition to visiting artisans at their studios or work spaces, art lovers can also meet them at three popup locations: the Astor Theatre, White Point Beach Resort and Coastal Queens Place in Port Mouton.

“Some artists are very quiet and unassuming. And suddenly you find there’s a guy on the street here who’s a fantastic portrait painter. You didn’t even know he was there. And locally, I think it’s important. Last October, when we did this, a lot of folks who came around were local.

“One of the wider goals of something like this is you feel like you have a sense of community and that you’re not working totally in isolation. Doing art can be a very isolating thing. To let them know that they have a community to be part of.”

Aside from the obvious goal of giving artisans more chances to sell their work, another objective of the tour is to bring art lovers to the area from all over the province and beyond.

“In the perfect world, I’d love to see artisans selling stuff and making some money,” Slessor says.

“I think if we bring people to the county, whether they buy from one of us or just spend some time in a restaurant or going to the Astor or doing whatever, that’s all positive. So we (hope to) increase the number of people coming into the county.”

Slessor says the Queens County Arts and Crafts Society has also applied for provincial funding to help them work on their online marketing and promotion. 

And he says he’d like to see international artists come to Liverpool for four-week residencies.

The former diplomat has reached out to some of his contacts overseas.

“It would be great to have, I don’t know, a Taiwanese artist here for four or five weeks. They’d be at the Astor. We would introduce them to other artisans. It would be fun and informative and something totally different.” 

People can pick up a Queens Coast art tour map in Liverpool at the Visitor Information Centre, the Astor Theatre, Main and Mersey coffee bar, Shore Thing Studio and Emporium or at SAS Glass just across from the Astor.

You can also find the map online here: https://sasglass.ca/resources/map6.jpg or follow Queens Coast Art Tour on Facebook.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below