Artists on the Move

A big sale this weekend precedes McRae Art Studios' departure from Winter Park. Where to next?

Ordinarily, factory warehouse sales tend to involve cheap furniture, major appliances, ugly carpeting and multiple exclamation marks.

This one is a bit of an exception, and for Orlando art lovers might be better punctuated with a sad-face emoticon.

McRae Art Studios, the Winter Park artists collective that has occupied a warehouse on Railroad Avenue in Winter Park for 18 years, is leaving that location at the end of September, and its 22 artists are divesting themselves, in the meantime, of  “original art at reduced prices, art equipment, hardware, tools, furniture, art books and CDs” in the sale.

The event is slated for Aug. 26 and 27 from 8 a.m. to noon. The studio is at 904 Railroad Ave., off Webster Avenue, in Winter Park. Given that most of the warehouse has no air conditioning, the morning-only approach is a humane strategy.

Artworks on sale include paintings, photographs, mixed media, jewelry and ceramics. Most of the artists in the collective hope to stay together but were unable to find a suitable place in Winter Park. They are negotiating with a potential new landlord in the Orlando area, but that possibility is still tentative, said a McRae spokesperson, and likely won’t happen until early next year, at best.

The studio was co-founded in 1986 by the late George Whipple and his wife, Marty. Their son, John, and his wife, Lynn, are among the artists in the collective, whose original location was in Orlando on McRae Avenue, near Florida Hospital.