By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman
FERNDALE – On Feb. 11, Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit will sell $20,000 worth of donated artwork in a benefit for itself and four other LGBT community organizations.
The art, which was donated by Price Waterhouse, will be sold for half of its appraised value, or $10,000.
According to MCCD Reverend Mark Bidwell, the collection to be sold is "a mixture of everything – drawings, posters, some paintings and photographs." The highlight of the sale will be a piece by Ian Hornak entitled "Wordsworth in the Tropics," an oil on canvas from 1977.
The art, which ranges in price from $50 to $3,000, is all matted and framed.
MCCD will reserve seventy-five percent of the proceeds for its own projects and will be splitting the rest with Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center, the Human Rights Campaign, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and the Triangle Foundation.
When sale attendees make a purchase they will be able to specify which of the four groups will receive twenty-five percent of the amount of their purchase.
"We wanted to be able to help the groups, and we also realized that they have memberships that we don't have access to, that don't know us, so we thought that if they invited their memberships to come to the sale it would increase attendance," Bidwell said.
"The organizations that we picked are supported by our congregation with financial donations as well as our members donating their time and talent," Bidwell added. "These organizations have also supported MCC Detroit in the past and we wanted to continue to build stronger and deeper relationships with them in 2006."
The decision to share the proceeds of the art sale is in keeping with MCCD's "Beyond Our Doors" program, through which the church's members have been raising and donating funds to causes ranging from medicine and supplies for Iraqi children to the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for the Triangle Foundation, expressed gratitude to MCCD for their generosity. "We're just incredibly grateful to MCCD and any other local charity that supports the work of Triangle Foundation," he said. "We're very grateful for MCCD seeing the value of our work saving lives and changing minds in Michigan."
"We're really excited to work together with them on this and think it's very generous of them to think of us," added Affirmations' Director of Marketing Kathleen LaTosch.
