Heart Work: Roma's Memories of CAP's Art Auctions
May 1 marks the 21st Annual Art Evening and Auction to benefit Cascade AIDS Project. It would not happen without the tireless effort of its Development Director, Roma Peyser (pictured above with my partner Juan Martinez). Roma is a good friend and when I found out that will she be moving on from her position and this year's auction will be her last as its driving force I thought it might be nice if she shared some thoughts on the eve of the event. Here is what she had to say.
Roma dedicates the following to "the irascible Michael S., the creative Michael N., the ever hopeful Michael G. and my best friend Alex V."
Dear Byron,
As I gear up for the 21st Annual Art Evening and Auction benefiting Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) at the end of this week (Saturday, May 1– sorry for the shameless plug), I think back to my very first experience volunteering for CAP. Bruce Carey, at the time owner of Zefiro with Chris Israel, was chairing the second annual art auction. He explained that he was working on an art auction to benefit CAP and needed help with art procurement. I was thrilled to be asked, didn’t really know anything about art auctions, but was happy to help in any way. At my first meeting I met Charles Froelick, who was managing William Jamison’s Gallery, Jeff Butters- working at his family’s gallery, Butters Gallery LTD and Brad Rogers, William’s partner I can happily say I am still in contact with all these talented men and each has continued to stay immersed in the art gallery business and community. We divided up the galleries and went out with the donation forms to ask for their participation and that of their artists. The event raised $9,000, which was double the revenue from the previous year). I also met you Byron. And over the years we have worked together promoting CAP, the art auction and AIDS Walk Portland with your intelligent, poignant and thought provoking writings when you worked for Willamette Week.
Well, I never really stopped volunteering for CAP.
(Click on "Read More" below for the rest of Roma's story)
I continued to work on the event for ten years as part of the steering committee, even joining CAP’s Board of Directors for five of those years. The event moved every two to three years – from Montgomery Park to Saks Fifth Avenue– raising $45,000 the third year and selling a beautiful piece called “Fireflies” by Patrick Abbey for $3,000, which was the most a piece had gone for in those first three years. Then after several years it was on to PNCA where the event took place even before the school opened its doors officially to students. We had pristine walls to use and eventually even added a $75 Patron Ticket for a brief Patron Reception before the event began.
The general admission tickets were $35 back then, and the event was a huge cocktail party with a silent and live auction. In those days after the event ended folks lined up (often very unsteadily) to take their artwork home with them. The planning committee, CAP employees and volunteers all helped out until the bitter end of each event, whether it was wrapping art, picking up glassware or cleaning up and our partners and friends worked right alongside us. Often many of us were there until 1:00am.
In 1999 I even brought my daughter Lily, who was just five weeks old, to the event and ran into the Volunteer break room to feed her, because I didn’t want to miss the event.
Venues continued to change, moving to Weiden + Kennedy where the event raised the most ever, $300,000, then it was back to Montgomery Park (with 500 guests we had to tent the Patron Dinner on the parking lot, and had beautiful Chilhuly centerpieces) and finally to the Oregon Convention Center for the past four years. At its peak we raised $650,000 and unfortunately with the economic downturn last year we did not have our best year. But, the Patron Event is sold out this year, we are at the historic Bison Building and we have some of the best art we have ever had.
As I stood in front of 30 volunteers this past Saturday at the Art Auction Volunteer Training, I realized how special and crucial our volunteers truly are. Here was a group of folks willing to spend a little over an hour on a sunny, early Saturday morning to review their upcoming roles at the event. CAP has always needed volunteers to be able to put on their events; the Art Auction uses over 200 volunteers and AIDS Walk Portland about 250. Some volunteers are one-time only, while others have come back year after year to be a part of the event(s) they enjoy, plus some of our weekly office volunteers and staff add the event to their repertoire. At CAP, the Development Department has four employees, with three of them working directly on events. This small but mighty group relies daily on volunteers and becomes enveloped by an army of very special people who help make these events so successful.
This year, the 21st Annual Art Evening and Auction will be bittersweet for me, as I transition from CAP to a new development opportunity in Portland. However, I started as a volunteer and I look forward to volunteering come September, as one of the 250 people that are counted upon to help with AIDS Walk Portland (October 3rd). My volunteering and employment at CAP was started by and has continued to be in memory of my dear friends that I lost throughout the 80’s and into the early 90’s and with them deeply embedded in my heart, I will continue to work towards the mission that CAP has set forth: to prevent HIV infections, support and empower people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS, and eliminate HIV/AIDS-related stigma.
Roma Peyser
Development Director
Cascade AIDS Project
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