Art Auction

Last week the PTO at our school hosted an art auction. We tacked it on to the school art night and had an amazing turnout!
The choirs performed, the PTO served dinner (BBQ, $5 a plate), the halls were lined with teacher look-a-like portraits done by the kids, the gym was filled with art projects from all grades, there was a poetry reading in the library, and the cafeteria had artwork hanging to be auctioned off.
We had eighty pieces of matted artwork done by the students, with everything from inkblot-ish paintings (like the one I won above by a second grader), to Star Wars drawings to crayon and ink drawings. It was awesome! We also had big tiles that the students had drawn Native American symbols on, one little sculpture, and some donated pieces from actual artists. I matted all the pictures with my handy dandy mat cutter, and let me tell you, even a crayon drawing looks great when it is matted.
It was a silent auction, so there were bid sheets for each drawing and the people just had to write in their bid. Each piece started out with a minimum bid of two dollars and all of the kids were so excited to make their parents bid on their friends' artwork. To top it off, each time a person bid they got a raffle ticket to be entered in a drawing for a prize - free oil change, free pedicure, $25 to a restaurant here in town. All of the prizes were donated (such wonderful people!) and I think the parents really enjoyed the added incentives. We even had twenty of the mats (all colored ones) donated.
Out of eighty pieces we only had five remaining at the end of the night, and we raised about $250.00. The bids ranged from $2.00 to $20.00.
Awesome.
Don't you think?
This is the kind of fundraiser I love...one that makes the kids feel good about themselves, one that actually involves them and relies on their participation, and one that the parents support because they want to.
I'd do it again in a heartbeat.