The Langenburg Arts Council recently held an online art auction, and it was a huge success! I spoke to Deanna Yung from the Arts Council about the event.
She said, “The auction was a huge success, it exceeded our expectations, we raised a little over $6000. This will go a long way, in keeping us afloat until we can open the theatre again. The arts council has discussed making the Art from the Heart auction an annual event. We love to get people together at the theatre, so if we can do a live auction in the future we will. It is so nice to be able to view all the items in person. That being said, now that we have one online auction under our belts, we would definitely do another Facebook auction.”
She continued, “We had a subcommittee of seven people put the auction together. Myself (Deanna Yung), Michelle Fiddler, Dustin Van Caeseele, Jan Layh, Avery Crittall, Patti Zerr and Danya Charlebois. This committee organized everything from asking all the artists for donations to marketing the event and taking the pictures for the posts and posting them all on Facebook. We started organizing before Christmas because we had to give the artists enough time to accept and create their donations. Then we started hitting our social media platforms with advertisements for the event in January. But the most time was spent the three days before. We collected the art and took pictures, created the posts, and had to redo some pictures. I cannot even ballpark how many hours were spent on this, but it was so much fun and so worth it. We had, I think, 75 items generously donated from our local artists and artisans.”
She concluded, “I think the auction gave the community something to look forward to, especially since we can’t play movies or have live performances. We got to help showcase a lot of great artists, and hopefully give them some exposure as well. The Langenburg Arts Council is never surprised at how our community just comes together in tough times. We still have costs to cover, we still must pay for all the utilities for the building. We tend to have furnace trouble every year when it hits -40 and there are always costs to fix that. We want to be running and active again once this pandemic blows over. I think we offer so many great forms of art to our community and surrounding area, it would be sad to see that go away. We are so grateful to all the people who donated items to the auction and to everyone who participated in the bidding, Thank You! Keep your eyes peeled for another exciting announcement we will be offering soon, Wear Your Art on Your Sleeve. The Marketing Committee has come up with a few clothing items that the public will be able to order.”
Make sure to check out The Langenburg Arts Council on Facebook for future events!