Take a Town Hall abuzz with people, walls hung with 60 varied contemporary artworks, and two worthwhile fundraising causes and you have a recipe for a highly successful event.
Such an event took place recently in the form of a Contemporary Art Auction, which was organised by an imaginative and hard-working committee chaired by Catherine de Groot. The auction’s purpose was to raise funds for two local initiatives. The Ruamahanga Health Trust is raising money to build a covered ambulance bay at the Medical Centre in Oxford Street.
The Waihinga Charitable Trust continues to work toward raising the finance needed for the refurbishment of the Town Hall and development of an adjacent building for the I-site, library, Plunket rooms and toy library. As Cath says, “It was a great show of solidarity for the two trusts to partner in this event”, and the proceeds will be split equally between them.
While the majority of the 60 works for auction were paintings in a variety of media and styles, they also included sculpture, photography, wood-turning, lithographs and prints. Many were local Wairarapa artists and it was clear that our region has a depth of artistic talent to be proud of.
An interesting and appealing addition was the sale of 40 ceramic platters by Lisa Donaldson of Carterton. These were created especially for the event and used to serve the evening’s delicious finger food, created by Jo Crabb, who generously donated all her skills and time. The platters were then offered for sale – once cleaned of course!
Stuart McLeod, MC for the evening, described Martinborough as “a small town with a big heart, full of enthusiastic people who love challenges”. Adrienne Staples asked the audience to “dig deep and bid large” and that is exactly what they did. Grant Henderson, Regional General Manager for Bayley’s Real Estate, ran an action-packed auction where the bidding became almost dizzying as bids swung back and forth between eager buyers like a dance.
Some lots started slowly but gathered momentum as Grant worked his audience and somehow, over the noise generated by the lively crowd, managed to keep control of proceedings. The final lot before the interval was number 30, a sculpture by Max Patte. The artist was in the audience and displayed his sculpture as the bidding proceeded. His presence undoubtedly served to heighten the intensity of the battle that developed between two determined bidders and the head-to-head fight had the entire hall on tenterhooks. When the hammer finally came down on an impressive $7000 sale, the audience erupted in approval.
Over $70,000 was raised for the two Trusts, which Cath de Groot says “was upwards of $15,000 more than we had hoped for”. She made particular mention of Grant Henderson’s gift of his time and expertise and the way he handled the auction was “definitely one of the key factors in achieving this result”. He coaxed and cajoled, teased and tempted, and the audience responded with spirit and generosity.
Throughout the evening the audience reacted to each sale with appreciation for those who so willingly supported the purpose of the event. The auctioneer’s cry just before the hammer came down of “Are you sure? Are you really, really sure?” generated increasing amusement as the night went on. One thing was certain; this audience was really, really sure of their enthusiasm for the spectacular art on offer and of their support for the community causes for which the money was being raised.
