If Chairs Could Talk: Artist Call

Lincoln Museum and Cultural Centre has issued a call for artists for its "If Chairs Could Talk" project, inspired by A.J. Casson's painting "A Yard Scene from the Porch, a Chair in the Foreground." The museum is seeking three artists from the Niagara region to create paintings inspired by items from its extensive collection of over 10,000 artifacts.

Selected artists will each receive $1,500 to cover their time and materials. The paintings will be featured in the museum's "Keep in Touch" exhibit, which begins October 10, 2026. The exhibit theme focuses on "communications" and will showcase how objects communicate to people through direct and indirect means.

The process is straightforward: chosen artists will be invited to visit the museum's basement vault to select an item they wish to paint. Artists can take photographs of their selected objects and create the paintings in their own homes or studios. Completed works must be delivered by mid-August 2026. Artists retain full ownership of their created artwork.

As an additional benefit, the three selected artists will see their works professionally reproduced as postcards that will be available to museum visitors. This provides excellent exposure and promotion for participating artists.

Historically, the inspiration for this project comes from A.J. Casson's 1953 painting, created for an Ontario Society of Artists contest asking artists to interpret and paint a Mennonite chair (known as a Springer chair). Casson won that contest and later donated both the painting and chair to the museum's predecessor institution.