An excellent, well written article from the Huffington Post by Matt Gleason and parodying what we  promote! We too have arrived at the same conclusion that this writer has. And it is a brave stand as nothing ruffles feathers like telling an artist that donating CASH to a good cause rather than his art makes way more sense!   It is what we do……besides, confess…don’t you usually donate that piece that no one has bought yet? Or the one you do not think will ever sell? Or convince yourself that it is feels better and grander to say you donated a $500.00 piece of art to a good cause rather than really pulling out “just”  $25.00 or $50.00? Or better yet, donate your piece and buy it back for full price if you truly want to participate in a totally charitable way?

………….I would love to hear the story of the artist whose career rocketed to success because he or she donated a work to a charity auction and this act alone tipped the first domino toward an avalanche of success coming his or her way. This narrative is always implied. I’ve never seen it happen.

Charity art auctions are the emptiest of promises to artists: you give us your work, you get nothing in return except a party invite to an event where you are a second class citizen. Watch as the price of what you really will let your work go for is nakedly advertised to the select group of people to whom your work is meant to be seen as rare and desirable.

Suppose you want to at least deduct a donation of your art to the charity, guess what? The law only allows an artist to deduct the cost of materials. Meanwhile a collector can buy your work for the minimum bid, have it appraised at its full retail value and donate it to some other good cause for that top dollar amount…………

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mat-gleason/charity-art-auctions-_b_872953.html