Art Auction Items Blog

Kindergarten Collaborative Piece

The art projects are complete. A total of 52 pieces will be on display. The invitations have been sent out and posters are in the school hallways. My checklist is almost full of checks, whew. The last elements on my agenda include: name tags for the auction items; bidding sheets for each auction item; and assembling a team for the auction night to keep track of the bids.

For the parents unable to attend I established a blog, listing each individual auction piece where they can place a bid the night of the event. I'm asking the administration to send an email reminder to the parents the day before and the day of the auction. To bid, parents and family simply leave a comment on the auction item posting. I'll have two people with iPads walking around updating the physical sheets at the auction and then updating, as necessary, the auction item, should the bidding continually change.

The work is almost done but there are factors working against the event that might not make it successful. It is at the end of the school year; parents have an event at the school two days before the auction; and, the cost to attend the dinner auction is high. The lack of success won't be for the lack of beautiful artwork, that is for sure!

Planning the Actual Art Auction Function

This is a reproduction of a Georgia O'Keefe piece.
I created it with oil pastels. My second graders will be
doing this collaborative piece. The final size is 22"x17".

Our art auction will be a silent one. It closes the night of the event, a dinner gala. To entice the families to attend, I'm exhibiting the artwork one month in advance from the actual function to get everyone excited about the event.

For the past two weeks I've been cutting mat board for all of the art work. I'm using glue stick to mount them. I tried the spray mount and it just didn't work as well. I've designed a poster, invitation and postcard, I'm just worried that I'm not getting it out early enough. I know how busy parents are and how fast their calendars fill up.

Matisse inspired Collaborative piece
I created in oil pastel. The kids will be
recreating a rectangle and I'll put them
together into one piece.

I'm creating labels that identify (especially on collaborative pieces) who did what part. I like the kids taking ownership and pride in their art. I'll create a separate page that displays all of the final work somehow. That could be another way to market it to parents. If I make a slide show or a page on Shutterfly that allowed parents to at least purchase a photo of a piece that seems like a good idea. Sometimes, a good writing brainstorm is what's needed.

Bottom line, doing this art auction is for a good cause, but it's a lot of work. I've spent many evening hours watching my favorite Gilmore Girls while I'm mounting artwork.