A successful fundraiser can always be improved, and the Cancer Community Center set out to do this Thursday night when it hosted an Art Preview Party at the Regency Hotel in Portland ahead of its annual online auction.
The auction, now in its ninth year, is the nonprofit’s largest fundraiser and had previously been a purely online affair. This year, new board member Corrine Bongiovanni took on the task of organizing the auction, which in addition to art features hundreds of items – such as trips, tickets, kids’ stuff, restaurant gift certificates and fashions.
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Bongiovanni, who is an artist, told me she immediately set about contacting other artists in Maine and across the country and inviting them to donate their works to the auction. As a result, she more than doubled the amount of fine art in the auction.
“We have some top-level artists here,” Bongiovanni told me. “People who’ve won significant awards and been featured in major art magazines.”
These include Eli Cedrone, David Simons, Varvara Harmon, John Bowdren, Martha Baum, Laureen Hylka and Shelbee Mares.
This year’s featured artist is Nick Patten of New York. He paints in a photo realistic style and his works are in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library, the Boston Public Library and the Art Museum of Rutgers University, among many others.
“Corrine had found my work online and happened to send me an email after my brother passed away (from cancer) last year,” Patten told me. “It was my pleasure to donate in memory of my brother (Mark Patten III).”
The work he donated to the auction is titled “The Conservatory” and it conveys a sense of anticipation as it depicts the interior of a recently completed apartment awaiting an occupant. The list price is $7,200.
“My brother was really fond of that painting,” Patten said.
Bongiovanni told me “a number of the artists donated in memory of someone they care about.”
This year the center is hoping to raise $75,000 from the auction, with all proceeds benefiting its services.
“We don’t have a large endowment and we don’t charge for any of the services we provide,” explained Joel Harris, who is the president of the board of trustees.
“We provide peer wellness and support programs to people whose lives have been affected by cancer,” Executive Director Michele Johns told me.
The center offers 16 support groups, plus numerous classes, including yoga, tai chi, art and whole foods cooking.
Board member Tracey Mezzanotte said the center is particularly valuable to people diagnosed with cancer who have finished their medical treatments.
“When people are done with their treatment, their support staff goes away and they think, ‘Where do I go?’” Mezzanotte told me.
The answer for many is the Cancer Community Center in South Portland.
Trustee Maureen McIntyre told me that holding a preview party makes a great deal of sense.
“When you see the work in person, it’s like ‘wow,’” McIntyre said.
Harris agreed that hosting a preview party helps build interest in the work.
“It’s great to be able to see the work,” Harris said, “because when you’re looking at digital images online it can be hard to judge. It gives potential bidders a better sense of the work and publicizes the auction.”
The online auction opened for bids on Friday morning, but those who attended the preview party had a chance to snatch up their favorite works by paying the full list price. Online bidding begins at half the listed value.
Because the organizers had never done a preview party or sold art in advance, they weren’t sure what to expect.
By 5:30 p.m. three works had sold. Organizers were thrilled with that number and thought that would be it for the evening. But an hour and a half later, the number of sold works jumped to 10. And by the time the show closed at 8 p.m., 12 works had gone out the door.
“This was an experiment, but I think we’ll do it again,” Johns told me.
Online bidding continues at www.cancercommunitycenter .org until 5:30 p.m. March 29.
Staff Writer Avery Yale Kamila can be contacted at 791-6297 or at:
akamila@pressherald.com
Twitter: AveryYaleKamila
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