A fundraising art sale to support the Auckland Refugee Family Trust, who provide financial support to reunite refugee families in Auckland will be hosted by Art for Change in November.

Artworks are currently being donated by artists from across Auckland, many of whom contributed to the hugely successful Where Shall We Call Home? exhibition which Art for Change organised at Depot Artspace in 2017.

“After last year's successful fundraising exhibition, Where Shall We Call Home?, we wanted to continue to help the Auckland Refugee Family Trust fund airfares for refugee families who might otherwise not be able to afford to bring their loved ones to join them in New Zealand”, explains Brenda Liddiard, Art for Change founder.

The process of family reunification for refugees is costly and lengthy. Once visas have been issued to the successful few, it is heart breaking when the last hurdle of securing money for the airfares proves insurmountable. Visas will expire if airfares cannot be purchased.

In the last year alone, ARFT have enabled the reunification of 49 families from countries including Myanmar (Burma), Uganda, Iraq and Pakistan.

ARFT is intent on ensuring that refugees who have been approved for emigration to New Zealand are not prevented from being able to join their families because of a lack of travel funds. Sam Blackley from the Auckland Refugee Family Trust is enormously grateful for ongoing support from Art for Change:

“Their creativity, hard work and dedication in putting on events such as the Pop Up Art Sale has helped raise much needed funds to support the work of the Trust in reuniting the families of people who have arrived here as refugees or asylum seekers. Their generosity has quite literally changed lives!”

Alongside the art sale will be a special raffle on Saturday 17 November, with the winning prize being a framed print of Gaël Rowntree's ‘Syrian Woman’ the feature image of the Where Shall We Call Home? exhibition.

To help cover the costs of organising this fundraising sale, Art for Change have set up a Give a Little page where members of the public can make donations. All funds raised via this page will be directly used to stage the fundraising sale, with any surplus donations given to the Auckland Refugee Family Trust.

The Art for Change Pop Up Art Sale will be open on Saturday 17^th October and Sunday 18^th November from 10am – 4pm at the Mt Eden Village Centre, 449 Mt Eden Road, Auckland.

For more information or to submit an art work for sale visit www.artforchange.net