WHEN A CHARITY FUNDRAISER ART AUCTION GOES BAD

I recently watched an art auction that was held to raise funds for a local public broadcasting television station. The auction was so poorly run and painful to watch that revisiting the topic of charity fundraiser art auctions and providing a few pointers about how NOT to conduct them are in order. 

First and foremost, use an experienced auctioneer who is familiar with art, knows how to sell it, and has experience doing fundraisers. Do not use an artist, an employee of the organization that's conducting the auction, or anyone else who thinks they can auction art, but who lacks experience. The auctioneer should arrive at the sale early, inspect each piece of art to be auctioned, and be provided with basic information about each piece and the artist who created it. You can never spend too much time prepping the auctioneer. 

An auctioneer who doesn't know art will have obvious difficulty describing and selling it. He'll use run-on sentences, make vague or unintelligible attempts to talk about the art and its artists, and be unable to create any sense of excitement among bidders. For example, the auctioneer for the public broadcasting channel's sale was not only  inexperienced, but he was also apparently seeing many of the auction items for the first time, live on-the-air, at the moments they came up for
sale. He struggled to make sense of much of this art for himself as well as for the viewers, and made weak attempts to stimulate bidding in between fumbling for the right words. To make matters worse, he only knew a handful of "art" words such as the term "wet-on-wet" which he used over and over again to describe a variety of types of art including
oil paintings. 

For artists donating art, the most important directive is to not overstate its value to the organization you're donating it to and make it appear to be worth more than it really is. Use values that are in line with the prices that you normally sell similar works of art for. Some of the art up for auction at the public broadcasting station's sale was so ridiculously
overvalued that the estimated dollar amounts as stated by the auctioneer were laughable to anyone who knows anything about art. 

Don't deluge the organization receiving your art with names of every single place you've ever exhibited or every single person who owns your art. Your life story has no place in a fast-paced art auction offering dozens of items by dozens of artists. Three or four career highlights is all an auctioneer normally has time for. Give the auction any more than that
and you force them to edit your bio and pick what they think sounds good rather than what you know sounds good. 

Don't be vague about or overstate your accomplishments when providing the organization receiving your art with your resume. Don't claim that you're a distinguished or accomplished artist unless you back it up with facts like awards you've won, shows that you've had, and significant collections that have acquired your art. For example, the statement "my paintings are in many important collections" tells nothing about that artist's accomplishments; substantiate that claim by naming names of people or institutions that own the art. 

Don't lie, cheat, or play with words when describing your accomplishments. For example, if you participated in a group show of student work at the AAA Museum of Art when you were an art student, say so. Don't make it sound like you exhibited there in your current career as an artist or had a one-person show there. 

Unless the people attending a fundraising auction are knowledgeable dealers, collectors, and fine arts professionals, provide the organization receiving your art with information and statements that laypersons can understand. Avoid art jargon, philosophical meandering, and bouts of critical analysis. Make your statement no longer than two to four
sentences and simply tell what you make, why you make it, and what it represents. 

Don't donate a piece of junk art that you're tired of looking at or that's been gathering dust in your studio since the Bronze Age. Bidders can often tell when a piece of art is something that the artist would rather get rid of than be proud of. Remember that donating your art to a charity fundraising auction is not about you. It's about the cause that you're
helping to raise money for. 

For more information on how to conduct successful charity fundraiser art auctions, read Art Auction Fundraiser Tips for Everyone.