Providing grants, programs, and services to the artists and audiences of Tompkins County for 30 years

CAP-a-Palooza Art Sale

An annual fundraising SALE of not-new art donated by community members 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let us know if you'd like to donate! We'll send a reminder and details. 
Program & Grant Director: Robin Schwartz, programs@artspartner.org

2025 Donation Dates: 

Monday to Wed, December 1 to 3, 2pm to 6pm 
Details below. 

2025 Sale Dates: 

Friday, December 5 (Gallery Night) through Saturday, December 13
All days except Sunday. Times TBA. 

Location: CAP ArtSpace Gallery in the Tompkins Center for History and Culture
110 N. Tioga Street (on the Ithaca Commons).


Click to Go to Section Below: 

What is CAP-a-Palooza? 
Donation Dates and Drop off Information 
What Kind of Art Can We Accept? 
What Can We Not Accept? 
How We Price and Organize Your Donations 

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What is CAP-a-Palooza?

"CAP-a-Palooza Art Sale Extraordinaire" is an annual fundraiser for the Community Arts Partnership (CAP), held over 9 days each December.  

How CAP-a-Palooza Works:

We collect donations of not-new, pre-owned art from community members who are downsizing or have unused or unloved art that they can part with. We then hold a 9 day sale.

The sale works well on two levels. Hundreds of people find joy in purchasing and coming to see what we have collected, AND community members feel good about donating their art collection to a good cause.  

(Note: We do not ask local artists to donate their own work.)

The art that is donated is vintage and contemporary, professional and amateur, fun and funky, antique and modern. There are paintings, photography, etchings, prints, small sculpture, pottery, embroidery, and more.   

Work is priced low so we can sell as out in 9 days. Prices drop throughout the sale. 

We thank our generous annual sponsor of the ArtSpace Gallery. Thank you Coughlin and Gerhart

 

Donation Dates & Drop Off Information: 

Donation Dates and Times
Mon, Tues, Wed, December 1, 2 and 3
2:00pm - 6:00pm each day
Note: We do not accept work before December 1st unless it is something really amazing... mostly because we don't have storage space, and staff works remotely. We can not pick up work.  

Location (Donations and Sale)
CAP ArtSpace Gallery in the Tompkins Center for History and Culture
110 N. Tioga Street (on the Ithaca Commons).

We will have a hand cart and a volunteer available who can help you bring stuff into the building.

Parking:
The closest you can get to the front door of our building is Seneca Street. Pull up alongside M&T Bank (Tioga and Seneca intersection. There are a few 15 minute parking spots. Our building, the Tompkins Center for History and Culture, at 110 N. Tioga (on the Commons), is just to the left of M&T. 

We DO have a back door which can be used on Wednesday, Dec. 3 only. 
If interested, email Robin (above) as it is an M&T lot and they do allow parking and our back door is locked)
 

What We Can Accept: 

  • Art that you inherited, that you'd like to downsize, or that you received as gifts. Work that has been piled in closets or attics, or art that reminds you of people you don't want to be reminded of. :) If you are ready to pass it on, donate it to CAP.
  • It can be professional or amateur, old or new. We love cool and funky vintage stuff.
  • 2D Work: It can be paintings, photography, and all other 2D types of work (see exceptions below). 2D work can be matted, framed or stretched canvas. 
  • 3D Work: Sculptures (small - under 16" tall), embroidery, handmade pottery, fiber art, and other functional art. (see exceptions below) 
  • Note: We do not ask working artists to donate their own work. Having said that, some artists like to downsize older work that they no loner sell. Community members many also donate a local artist's work that they had owned. 

Donation Condition
-Please clean frame and glass before donating.
-Please donate work that is in good shape (no mold, no broken glass or broken frames).

Information and Stories: (Totally optional, but totally greatI) 
If you can decipher or interpret hard-to-read signatures for us, or have interesting stories about the work and where you purchased it, it would be wonderful if you could jot that down and tape it to the work.  One short sentence is good: i.e. "Aunt Ginny made this in her 1963 still life watercolor class;" or "I purchased this in Juneau, Alaska at a gallery in the 80's" or "This was a gift from a student from Japan."

Donated Work is Tax Exempt
CAP is a not for profit charitable organization and we can give you a signed receipt for your donations. Note: The donor fills in the value of the donated work and/or a list of what was donated. We just provide a date and a signature. 
 

What We Can't Accept (and may need to turn away): 

(Note: There may be exceptions if something is fabulous. Feel free to send images or questions to Robin)

  • Rolled up work, loose papers, or posters. (2D work should be matted, framed, or stretched canvas. Exception - work on very heavy watercolor paper)
  • charcoal drawings that are not behind glass
  • Posters on foam core, unless framed
  • Books or portfolios (...those old masters print portfolios that everyone seemed to have in 1954)
  • Work that has mold, broken glass, or broken frames. (You can try cleaning - sometimes there is mold on the inside of a glass frame that can be cleaned up!) 
  • Work that is disintegrating, peeling or flaking. 
  • Work that weighs over 20 pounds.
  • Work that is larger than 40" wide/high. 
     

How We Price & Organize Your Donations

  • Work is priced low so that we can sell 700 items in 9 days.
  • Prices range from $1 to $65 (mostly - with a few pieces priced from $75 to $400).
  • Prices are determined by CAP staff (with advice from local appraisers).  
  • If you believe something is of high value that you'd love us to know about, please attach a note! In the past, we've sent some high value work to auction houses. 
  • We have a couple of art appraisers that come and look over everything before the sale starts to see if there is anything of great value. We also look up many items on ebay as they arrive, to see if similar or the same work by an artist has sold.
  • If you'd like to research ebay or other accessible sites ahead of time, make sure you check on what similar art sold for, not what it is selling for  Check "completed sales."  
  • Having said that, we do price low - often lower than something might sell online and we lower prices throughout the event. 


AFTER THE SALE:
Work that doesn't sell is either stored for the following year, or we have a free day for local not-for-profit organizations.

FYI: WE KEEP TRACK OF DONORS, but not DONATIONS
We keep track of the people who donate art, but not what they donated.  Sometimes donors want to know if their work sold and the only way to know that is to stop by at the end of the sale to see! 

THANK YOU!