and you can place advance bids on the net before the auction on December 9.”

The gallery sent out blank postcards to established painters and celebrities, and it won’t be until the final mail delivery, before the exhibition opens today, that the Cornerstone will have a full list of who’s taking part.

Definitely exhibiting, though, will be Liverpool-born printmaker and engraver Anne Desmet, whose touring exhibition was seen at the Cornerstone this month; installation artist Elizabeth Willow, who won the people’s choice award at the 2009 Liverpool Art Prize; and Michael Poynter Adams, a director of the renowned Curwen Studio, in Cambridgeshire, whose 50th anniversary retrospective was at the Cornerstone in June..

Celebrities being celebrities, Jason will not know until the exhibition is ready to open just who will have sent in work.

But one confirmed exhibitor will be Rolf Harris, who trained as an artist before becoming an all-round entertainer and whose work was hung as part of the Curwen show.

The auction will be in aid of the Artists General Benevolent Institution, founded by JMW Turner, and one of the oldest charities in Britain, providing help for professional artists in need.

It is, Jason admits, an idea unashamedly copied from London,

THE exhibition, entitled Pre-paid 2009, is at the Cornerstone Gallery at Liverpool, Hope University, in Haigh Street, from now until Wednesday, December 9, from 9am to 5pm. Auction on December 9, from 6pm.

It is part of the Cornerstone Arts Festival 2009, which finishes on Saturday, December 5, with a performance of Haydn’s Creation.