Soft Touch Arts STARS art Auction

CALLOUT TO ESTABLISHED LOCAL AND NATIONAL ARTISTS
Can you help uncover and develop the creative talents of young people in Leicestershire?

Soft Touch Arts is offering a fantastic opportunity to showcase your work to a new audience and help to give young people in Leicestershire the opportunity to develop their creative talents.

We are looking for well-established local artists that understand how involvement in the arts has the potential to make positive changes in people’s lives. We are asking for artists to donate a piece of work for our STARS art auction on 29th September 2017, to raise funds to give more young people the opportunity to participate in life-changing arts projects in Leicestershire

Soft Touch Arts has been uncovering and developing the hidden creative talents of disadvantaged young people in Leicestershire for 30 years. We involve young people with challenging life situations in a wide range of developmental creative projects which supports them to build confidence and self-belief, develop new skills and talents and make positive steps forward with their lives.

To continue to deliver our work (which reaches over 1000 young people each year), we need to raise £450K annually. This year we are organising our first exclusive art auction event at a county hotel with a guest list of local business leaders and high-net worth individuals. Our target is to raise £10,000 to cover the costs of an ongoing arts project for young people with mental health and social anxiety issues.

For artists that get involved, the auction event will attract a new audience with potential future commissions and sales. A pre-auction brochure will feature a photograph of you and your donated artwork, plus a short biography and link to your website, gallery or other contact information. We expect an audience of 200+ and leading up to the event individual artists will be featured daily in a social media campaign, providing free publicity for you and your work.

We will be including a few select pieces created by our young people in the auction which will be a fantastic opportunity for them to showcase their talents alongside established local artists. One of the initiatives we want to get off the ground at Soft Touch is the STARS (Soft Touch Arts Resale Scheme) which will take commissions from local businesses and individuals for artwork created by young people on our projects so they start to learn about selling their work. The auction will help to raise awareness about the scheme.

The event
Will take place at the newly opened historical boutique hotel, Abbots Oak near Copt Oak which will provide an amazing and unusual backdrop for the artwork to be displayed. The event will run between 6-9pm on Friday 29th September 2017. A brochure featuring artists that have donated pieces for auction will be produced early August 2017. Guests will be served drinks and canapés with live contemporary musicians providing an atmospheric soundscape in the lead up to the auction.

Benefits for being a contributing artist for STARS fundraising auction 2017
• Exposure to new high-net worth audience with potential future sales and commissions
• Free publicity associated with the event
• Invitation to the event so you can talk about your work. And/or, opportunity to display your
brochure or folio alongside your donated piece of art.
• Acknowledgement of your support for participatory and life-changing arts projects in
Leicestershire
• Inspiring and encouraging young people to engage with the arts
• Opportunities for further involvement in the work of Soft Touch Arts