Gallery night formats

An opening, a preview, a first night or a members' reception gathers exactly the people an arts auction needs — patrons, subscribers, board, collectors and artists — in a space designed for looking at things.

It is the best auction environment the organization will assemble, and it is also an artistic occasion that should not be turned into a sale.

The format that works

• Online, opening a week or two before, closing at the event. Bidding happens away from the room, people who cannot attend take part, and the evening gets a closing moment rather than an hour of selling
• The lots displayed in the space, hung or plinthed properly, with QR codes on the labels
• Catalogue information on every label — artist, title, medium, dimensions, year — as it would be for any exhibition
• One short announcement, and the artists thanked by name
• Closing after the speeches, not during them

Displaying the work properly is the point. A donated piece leaning against a wall beside a bid sheet is worth less and says something about how the organization regards the artist.

Do not let it take the evening

• The exhibition, the performance or the artist is the reason people came
• No bidding announcements during a performance or a speech
• No auction table between the audience and the work
• Keep the announcement short and warm
• If the evening is an artist's opening, the auction is a guest at it

Other formats worth considering

A dedicated auction exhibition. Hang the donated work as a show in its own right for two or three weeks, with the auction closing at the end. It gives the work proper exposure, treats the artists seriously, and produces a second audience — people who come for the exhibition rather than the fundraiser.

A studio tour. Several artists open their studios, the work is seen where it is made, and the auction runs across the weekend. Strong in a community with a working artist population and it costs the organization almost nothing.

Online only, no event at all. Reaches collectors nationally, costs a fraction of a gala, and is the right answer for a small organization whose staff cannot run an evening.

Bring the artists into the room

An opening where the donating artists are present, named and introduced is better for everybody — the work sells for more when its maker is standing beside it, the artists meet buyers, and the organization is visibly treating them as guests rather than suppliers.

Give them tickets, say their names from the front, and make sure somebody introduces them to the people bidding.

And handle collection properly

Art needs wrapping, handling and sometimes shipping, and a winner carrying an unwrapped canvas to a car in the rain is a bad end to a good evening.

Materials, a person responsible, and a stated collection arrangement on the item page. For anything large or fragile, agree the arrangement before the lot opens.

General information, not legal or tax advice. The treatment of an artist's donation of their own work differs from a collector's donation of the same piece, and appraisal and substantiation rules are technical — artists and donors should take their own advice.