The article published

I was fortunate to have this article published in the Okanagan Arts magazine in the fall of 2007.

Here is a reprint. You may read the original article on the Okanagan Arts website, found here.

Most artists get requests from charitable organizations to donate art for a  raffle or a silent auction as a way of raising money for their causes. Charities recognize art as a desirable commodity and are aware that the local community will respond favourably to artwork as  something worth obtaining. Charities also request items from retail stores, such as kitchen and garage appliances, jewellery, or services that include housekeeping or  personal grooming among others.

It makes it all the more unfortunate then when charities often do not  realize that there is a difference between a widget, such as a coffee pot, and an artwork. The difference is that retailers pay  wholesale prices to obtain coffee pots and the rest of their inventory from wholesalers and manufacturers, who also deliver the merchandise. Retailers then process the merchandise and display it for sale with a suitable retail markup.

Artists on the other hand, have to conceive the idea, purchase and transport the necessary materials, and then create the final piece ­ by painting, drawing, or sculpting their vision. There is also time, energy, and human experience,  which they translate into something tangible through artwork; a process that can take days, weeks, months, or sometimes years.

 The merchant and the artist would be on equal terms if the merchant were  to create his own coffee pot, through his own vision and unique design, from  materials that he had to purchase and transport, on his own time, and through his own experiences. Therefore, until this day occurs, there can be no correlation and comparison between regular merchants and artists in terms of the value of their donations to fundraising events. At  such events, at the end of an auction, the final result may be that the coffee pot received a price close to its wholesale price, but  seldom does the artwork achieve a price even close to half of its retail value. This  hurts the artists both in terms of self-worth and because their work is devalued financially.

At a glance

• Art is a valuable commodity for fundraisers
• There is a huge difference between an artwork and a coffeepot(yes, it's true!)
• Seldom does an artwork attain its true value in a fundraiser