Art Reach celebrates anniversary with reception, appraisals

If you ever wondered how much that art in the attic or hanging in your dorm is worth, here’s your opportunity to find out.

Roy Saper, of Saper Galleries in East Lansing, will do walk-in verbal art appraisals as part of Art Reach of Mid Michigan on Friday.

Mid Michigan Collects, the 25th anniversary celebration of Art Reach, will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Art Reach Center, 319 S. University St.

Saper will do appraisals from 3 to 5 p.m., and then will give a presentation with more appraisals later in the evening. Saper is considered one of the country’s top art appraisers.

“Ninety-five percent of the works of art I appraise is not what they (customers) thought it was,” Saper said. “I’ve seen too much deception, but there’s deception in the medical business, jewelry and auto repair.”

Saper has been appraising art for 29 years and said he has served customers from 22 countries in a single month.

His presentation will discuss collecting art.

“I’ll be talking about fakes, frauds, forges, insurance issues, how to decide on what to get, how to bring in a collection and the joys of collecting,” he said.

Saper also will talk about local art discoveries.

Art Reach also offers classes and works with the community promoting art, mainly at local schools.

“Art Reach picture program reaches 10,000 children each year,” said Nedra Fisher, board member of Art Reach. “We go to 33 schools in four different counties, including Clare and Isabella.”

Fisher’s focus of interest is art education. She said Art Reach has docents, who are speakers, go into kindergarten to sixth grade classes and introduce students to finer art.

“They learn about everything from Picasso and Rembrandt to caveman art,” Fisher said. “We want them to know about different art periods – we hope they’ll be excited about art.”

Kathryn Hill, executive director of Art Reach, said she hopes members from the community will want to come and find out about art in their own lives and about artists in the community.

“The angle we tried is for people in the community to see other works of art (in the) community, to see something special, something you can view from your home,” Hill said.

Walk-in verbal appraisals are $10. For refreshments, Saper’s presentation and an appraisal, the cost is $25.

“I encourage everyone to take something down off the wall and we’ll help identify it,” Saper said.

lifeline@cm-life.com