There are many ways to display art projects for an auction, from a traditional gallery setting to a high school gymnasium.
Organizing an art project auction takes careful planning and preparation. Whether the auction is for students' classroom work, a charitable cause accepting art donations, or part of a larger for-profit event, there are basic steps to be followed in each case. Ensure all artists and auction assistants are fully versed in the auction process you will be following, and your event should run smoothly and be a financial success for all involved.
Instructions
Auction Preparation
1. Invite individuals to submit their art projects for the auction. Explain for what purpose the auction is being held and if the artists' work is to be sold for profit or as a charitable donation. If it is a for-profit auction, be clear if there will be hanging fees charged to artists for showing their work, if you will be taking a commission on sales and if you will be collecting sales tax, if applicable. If space is limited in the auction, you may choose to accept artists either on a first-come, first-served basis or through a jury selection process.
2. Promote the art project auction so that potentially interested buyers will know when and where it will take place. You can promote through email invitations, postcards and flyers posted in appropriate venues.
3. Recruit volunteers to help staff the art project auction. You will need people to handle auction security, set-up and tear-down, artist check-in and check-out and bidder registration and collection. How many volunteers you will need depends on the size of your auction.
Auction Set-Up
4. Check-in the artists' work for the auction. Ensure each art project is labeled with the artist's name, piece title, minimum bid and contact information. Artists should fill out bid forms for each piece, keeping copies for themselves as well as attaching copies to their work for display. Artists should also fill out control sheets itemizing all of their work in the auction and pay any upfront hanging fees for displaying their projects.
5. Arrange art projects for display. Three dimensional objects can be placed on banquet tables and two-dimensional works on walls, grid wall or movable panels. All work should be easily visible to potential bidders; use additional lighting if necessary to best present the projects.
6. Register interested bidders by collecting their information on index cards and assigning them bidder's numbers. Each bidder should provide his full name, contact address, phone number, email and driver's license or other form of photo identification. Explain to potential bidders that their bid, either in written or vocal form, is a contract to buy and must be honored at the end of the auction. Be clear what forms of payment will be accepted including cash, check and credit card.
The Auction
7. Hold an open silent auction period where interested buyers can view the projects and place written bids on the bid form for each piece. Written bids should be at least the minimum price asked for by the artist, and if there is already one written bid on the form the next bid must be of a higher amount. Determine the number of written bids which will be required to send an item to live auction; generally three to five are needed depending on the size of the auction. Any project receiving fewer bids will be sold for the highest written bid.
8. Hold the live voice auction at an announced time, featuring all pieces that received more than the minimum number of written bids. Anyone who has registered to bid can now compete against each other by upping the current top bid amount. Each item is sold when no more voice bids are received.
9. Collect proceeds from winning bidders and have them take home their art. Prepare a receipt for each winning bidder, making copies for the artist and your records. Ensure that auction security checks each departing auction attendee to confirm he has a receipt for any artwork in his possession.
Auction Break-Down
10. Check-out artists from the auction by returning any unsold artwork and presenting receipts for sold art projects. Verify that all work has been tracked via the artist's control sheet and that nothing has gone missing from the auction. Prepare a final receipt for each artist indicating the proceeds he will receive, if any, and indicate when payments will be mailed or otherwise delivered.
11. Break down the displays and clean the auction space. Inspect the room to ensure that no unclaimed artwork remains, and if it does contact the artist or bidder to let her know where and collect her work.
12. Confirm all sales amounts and prepare final reconciliation sheets for the artists using a spreadsheet program.
13. When sales proceeds have cleared, submit payments to artists or to the charitable cause being supported by the auction.
