Giving Tuesday raised funds for Florida Opera Theater.

Giving Tuesday was on December 2nd an this fundraiser was at the Women’s Club of Winter Park (419 S Interlachen Ave, Winter Park, FL). The Club was founded in 1915, and is one of the oldest
not-for-profit community organizations in Winter Park, Florida. Giving Tuesday was created by the non-profit sector to establish a day of pure giving; to any cause that you support, believe in or are passionate about. It’s surrounded by the giving feeling of the holidays, so it turns out that it’s quite a successful day in the area of fundraising.

I was contacted because the organizer wanted a live painter while there were live performances throughout the evening (kind of like what the Glazier’s do at the Timucua White House). The original idea was to have patrons “add” something to this piece of art, so that it could be said that many people had a hand in creating this piece. People might add a few strokes themselves, or put their initials onto the canvas and the painter somehow include that as part of the painting.. The theme was to be “this is what the arts means to me”. I had done this type of thing at the Sonesta Hotel for a Downtown Arts District fundraiser. I did the 18 foot wide Orlando skyline sketch and patrons could essentially paint by the numbers. It was a disaster that I had no desire to repeat. It isn’t a great idea to give patrons that have been drinking wet paint. I did however decide to document the event with a sketch. Patrons still got to see a painting created live without getting their hands dirty.

The Florida Opera Theater singers were fantastic. This was a great way to warm up to the holiday season.