Sunday, February 20, 2011

What Are You Doing on March 12?

What you should do is attend Box 13 ArtSpace's annual fundraiser. No, wait--don't zone out! All non-profit art spaces in Houston have fund-raisers and many of them are very deserving of your support. Box 13 is definitely deserving. But that's not why I am suggesting that you attend this fund-raiser.

Instead, the reason is that it is a way for us low-budget art collectors to get some surprisingly substantial pieces of art for a really low price. Lots of spaces have auctions (Project Row Houses, Diverse Works, Lawndale) and what I find is that the prices at these auction (for very, very fine pieces of art) are really high--these auctions attract fairly well-to-do collectors. Even at Lawndale's annual Retablo show, a silent auction in which most pieces are relatively affordable, the most desirable pieces end up selling for a lot of money.

But the way Box 13 structures its event is as a raffle. They get a large number of donated artwork from artists with studios at Box 13, other Houston artists, artists from the rest of Texas and a few from other parts of the country. Last year, the selection was terrific, I thought. Then beside each piece is a little box. You buy as many raffles tickets as you want, and put a ticket in the little boxes adjacent to the pieces you would like. The more popular an individual piece is, the more tickets there will be in the box. But the thing is, for a relatively small amount of money, you are extremely likely to win something. Last year I bought something like $200 worth of raffle tickets. How many artworks can you buy for $200? Not too many! But I ended up winning four beautiful, substantial pieces (as I wrote about here).

Box 13

This was one of the raffle winning tickets being chosen last year. That's one of the fun parts of the event--winners find out the same night--and get to carry their new piece of artwork home with them.

That's why you should come to the Box 13 fundraiser. For a little bit of money, you probably will drive walk home with a piece or two of superb artwork. The fact that you will be also supporting a wonderful organization is just a bonus. So mark off March 12 and be there at 7 pm.


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