Going once, Going twice

Published 1:00 pm Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Eat, drink, be merry and open your wallets for a good cause. That’s the gist of the Auction for the Arts 2006 event, “A Moveable Feast and Silent Auction,” taking place Sept. 30 at The Town Square, also known as the lawn in front of The Playhouse, 200 Madison Ave, Bainbridge Island.

The evening officially begins at 5 p.m., but organizer Mary Clare Kersten advises people to get there for the “soft opening” at 4:30 p.m.

“That way they can scope it all out,” she said. “There’s a lot to look over.”

The silent auction features five tables laden with “wonderful things,” Kersten said, including many works of art by local artists.

“The focus is on art,” she said.

That’s appropriate since the annual event is a fund raiser for four non-profit arts organizations on Bainbridge Island: Bainbridge Arts and Crafts, Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council, Bainbridge Chorale and Bainbridge Performing Arts. The event is organized by a team representing each organization.

Artists donating work for the silent auction include Tom Torrens, Max Grover, Richard Stine, Brian Berman, Sally Prangley and Solia Hermes.

There are also donations of wine, handcrafted jewelry and even a walk-on role in the upcoming Bainbridge Performing Arts production of “The Wizard of Oz.”

The Moveable Feast will be held on the lawn under two large tents. Eleven Bainbridge Island restaurants will be donating their culinary finest for the dinner. A sampling of the restaurants participating includes San Carlos Restaurant, Madoka, The Four Swallows, Winslow Way Cafe and Blackbird Bakery.

Performers from The EDGE Improv will circulate among the attendants, highlighting auction items and encouraging bidding.

“They’re going to be keeping the focus on the auction and promoting the items available,” Kersten said.

Kersten noted that this year there is a two-tier pricing system, with a $50 per person ticket good for the dinner and silent auction, while a $100 level ticket buys the dinner, silent auction and a live auction inside The Playhouse, which begins at 7:30 p.m. EDGE member David Silverman serves as auctioneer for the live auction. After the auction The Jazz Ambassadors will play and participants are invited to stay and “dance the night away.”

The live auction features pricier items, such as a week-long stay in an apartment in Paris or in the artists community of San Miguel de Allende, outside of Mexico City.

The live auction also includes higher priced art from artists such as the auction’s honorary chair, metal artist Michelle Van Slyke.

“This auction is first rate all the way,” Kersten said.

Last year, the event raised $100,000 and Kersten is hoping to top that this year. One effort in that direction is the Community Auction, in which more than 30 businesses on Bainbridge Island will offer items in their stores for silent auction, beginning Oct. 1 and continuing through Oct. 15. Kersten said they started the event last year, but it was not very successful because not enough community members knew about it. She is hoping to change that this year by making sure people have it on their radar.

“This is a great way to involve the community in the arts, which is such a big part of life here,” she said. “Anyone can walk into any of the 32 stores and with a stroke of a pen they can become a patron of the arts.”

Lists of participating stores are available in each of the businesses, which are along Winslow Way and Madison Avenue, and on the Auction for the Arts Web site: www.artsauction.org.

Tickets for A Moveable Feast and the silent auction are $50 per person; tickets for A Moveable Feast, silent and live auction are $100 per person, available on the Web site.