The Pilchuck Glass School has maintained its impressive fundraising results of recent years with another $1-million-plus auction taking place on Saturday, October 18, 2013. A total of $1.175 million was raised at the event held at the Westin Seattle thanks to generous donations of work by some 260 artists, including a new section of handmade glass jewelry. The highest price of the evening was the $60,000 bid for a Karen LaMonte work from her "Kimono" series. Though LaMonte's work entitled Young Maiko (2010) didn't reach its $75,000 estimate in the auction catalog, its sale topped all others for the highest bid of the evening.
The next-highest prices were realized by Lino Tagliapietra for his Fuji (2011) work, which sold for $57,000, and Ann Wolff's cast glass piece entitled Lill Blues (2006), which sold for $35,000.
"We were very fortunate to have artists contribute such excellent pieces," Pilchuck executive director James Baker told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet in an email exchange. "There was an enormous range of work, both in terms of aesthetic intent and cost."
This year's silent auction was conducted through an electronic platform called GiveSmart, which allows bidding via mobile devices, as well as before and after the actual event.
"We continued our initiative to use electronic bidding for the silent auction and it worked smoothly this year, though I know there are some of our most loyal bidders that prefer paper bidding," said Baker.
In a follow up telephone interview, Baker said that improvements in the GiveSmart software, including the addition of photos of the work up for bid, helped to make the electronic auction more successful this year. Though Pilchuck's results have been remarkably consistent over the past five years, the organization is careful not to become complacent.
"We understand we have to continually innovate the Pilchuck auction," said Baker, who cited the addition of a jewelry section of the auction, as well as involving the Chaotic Noise Marching Band to help transition from cocktails to the sit-down for the live auction as two examples of how the event stays fresh. "We don't take our success for granted, and are extremely grateful to the generosity of all those who donated."