By Cornelius A. Fortune
DETROIT – The 10th annual Art Works for Life, to benefit the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project was held Sept. 24 at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, with Fox 2's Fanchon Stinger as host.
"The last few weeks we've had so much attention about what's going on around the world," said Stinger. "We're hopefully going to get a break from that, and all come together and do something for a good cause."
More than 300 works by local artists were up for auction at the event. Festivities included complimentary hors D'oeuvres, live jazz, and a strolling fashion show.
The artworks ranged from watercolors, to abstract musings on life, in a variety of mediums: from the absurd, to the sublime, including a piece by Yoko Ono.
This diversity is part of what's so special about the auction, said Yvonne Greenhouse, MAPP's development director.
"It's become one of the area's most anticipated art events – it's seen as a very serious art auction," she said. "What's exciting about this event is that the art pieces are not buried amongst other packages such as trips, or baskets of fruits, or nuts or popcorn. We really try to push local area artists. It's an overall real positive feeling this year."
And the quality of this year's offerings reflected that, she observed.
"I think that the artists made an extra effort to submit even better pieces than they've submitted in the past," she said. "So we're very excited, and yet humbled at the same time. It's very exciting to see the way they support HIV and AIDS, and helping us further our mission at MAPP."
Jeffrey Montgomery, executive director of Triangle Foundation, applauded the work of MAPP and the vitality of the event.
"This event is always a terrific event, a fantastic variety and selection," said Montgomery. "Terrific art to choose from, terrific food, great location, committed crowd, and all of it ends up going back to this great, great organization – MAPP – which deserves all the support it can get; it's so well represented by this event because it's diverse, it's beautiful and significant – that describes the event, the art, and the mission of MAPP."
Photographer Deborah Kingery, a contributor to the auction and an educator at Wayne State University was happy to help, but wanted to see more LGBT artists represented.
"More gay artists ought to come out and display their work because I think a majority of artists in here are not gay, which I think is fascinating," said Kingery. "I think there are more gay artists out there that should really think about participating in this event. It also educates the public that there are gay people out there doing positive things, and being creative and making a difference."
Detroit, she admitted, is in need of more artistic venues.
"They need more events to showcase what Detroit has as artists, and also positive events to help the gay community," she said. "Detroit's always been automotive and industrial – the arts have never really been accentuated; I think other parts of Detroit have been…now that's fading away, isn't it?"
Ann Duke, MAPP board member, has been with the organization for 10 years.
"We have a very good representation of LGBT art," said Duke. "It's a place for rising artists to be exhibited in the same room with someone who's well established and have a broad reputation in this market, and it's also going for a terrific cause at the same time, so everybody goes away happy."
"Typically we think of artists as starving artists," said Dr. Dan Haddad, a MAPP planning committee member. "It's amazing to see these young artists donate their work – they work hard at it, and give to the cause, which is really wonderful."
At press time, the preliminary numbers for the event are comparable to last year's totals. MAPP expects to net over $60,000 in proceeds for the organization.
"The MAPP Artworks event has become the premier art event of the season in southeast Michigan, and we are so grateful to the hundreds of artists, volunteers and patrons who support the continuing and important work fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic here in our state," said Craig Covey, MAPP CEO.
Since its incorporation in 1988, MAPP has distributed over two million AIDS education materials and condoms, reaching more than 500,000 people.
