Something Old, Something New

On Friday, May 6, 2011, Arc & Matson Community Services held an elegant and successful Artistic Chair Auction at the Fitchburg Art Museum.

The idea of this event started a year ago when Allyson Chalapatas, Sales and Marketing Director, stumbled upon 80+ chairs in the basement of Arc Community Services Main Street facility.  Recognizing the needs to find new ways to raise money for Arc’s 100-year-old building in the midst of renovations, an idea sparked from a memory of a project that she had once completed for her son.  The song ‘Colors of the Wind’ by Vanessa Williams ran through her head:

“You think the only people who are people
are the people who look and think like you;
but if you walk the footsteps of a stranger,
you’ll learn things you never knew you never knew.”

She mulled the idea for a bit.  Then it came to her, why not send these chairs out to artists to paint, decorate, and bring new life to these old pieces of furniture that were headed for the trash.  Allyson shared her excitement and ideas with Jennifer Peck, the Director of Development at the Alliance for Resource Management.  And so began the planning of a new and innovative fundraising event known as the Artistic Chair Auction.

A short time into the planning stages, Allyson noticed that the majority of the chairs had a burned imprint stamp under the seat that said, “Monson State Hospital”.  This discovery created even more enthusiasm as it gave an opportunity to raise money for the agency and preserve a piece of history for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who once resided in state institutions.

The dynamic duo of Allyson and Jennifer reached out to area artists over the next several months through the Leominster Art Association, Fitchburg Art Museum, the Fitchburg Cultural Alliance, and local school systems.  They received an overwhelming response from artists who stepped forward without hesitation to participate in this project.  In fact, the response was so great that they ran out of chairs as Artists clamored to support the project.  Allyson and Jennifer were quick to contact their newly made friend, Amy Newberg, owner of Design 639 on Main Street in Fitchburg.  Amy had stepped up early on to give new life to a chair and was very excited to help in any other way she could.  Amy refinishes old furniture and had a surplus of chairs in her basement.  Amy enthusiastically donated eight chairs for a group of artists from the University of New Hampshire.

While artists feverishly gave new life to these historical chairs, Allyson and Jennifer continued to plan the Artistic Auction Event.  They chose the Fitchburg Art Museum as the venue with Courtyard by Marriot to cater the event. In early March, a Chair Gallery, designed by Golden Tree Design Studios, was launched on the Arc & Matson website for the publics’ preview of chairs and their stories.  Mary Heafy, President and CEO, made guest appearances in February and March with Mayor Lisa Wong and the Fitchburg Live show at FATV.  She spoke of Arc & Matson’s programs, the Capital Campaign renovation project, and promoted the Artistic Chair Auction by bringing several chairs that had filtered in early March.  

The first week of April, finished chairs flooded in from artists.  Jennifer worked tirelessly to post them to the website Chair Gallery.  In the midst of uploading these beautiful pieces of art, Arc & Matson’s web server crashed due to an unusual high volume of traffic to the website.  Mary Heafy, President and CEO, was ecstatic over this news!  The agency has been diligently working to draw attention to their new website for over a year and this event proved that the website was putting us on the map.  Simultaneously, Jennifer & Allyson held a reception at the Arc Main Street facility for the artists who participated in bringing new life to the chairs.  It was a great opportunity for the artists to join, have the first LIVE preview of the chairs, and to see first hand what their efforts were supporting.  For the remainder of April, the chairs were distributed throughout the community for display in local art galleries and places of business including Design 639, Rollstone Studios, The Johnsonia, FATV, Courtyard by Marriot and Fidelity Bank.

The Artistic Chair Auction event day was upon us.  The agency truck was loaded with over 90 chairs and brought to the museum.  Volunteers creatively displayed the arrangement of the chairs at the museum while the Courtyard by Marriott filtered in with elegant and delicious food. Before we knew it, the front door was lined with people excitedly waiting to check in to bid on the beautifully decorated chairs. The evening was a great success!  Among the attendees, Mayor Lisa Wong, a long time supporter of Arc & Matson Community Services, spoke passionately about the importance of this organization in downtown Fitchburg.  Jen Carter and Steve Donovan, celebrity radio show hosts from WXLO 104.5, provided entertaining commentary throughout the evening.  Mike Fura, a pianist from Connecticut, played the baby grand piano and his music was a delight to our ears. 

There were so many superlatives of the evening – The Courtyard by Marriot’s outstanding food and the venue of the Fitchburg Art Museum that complemented the amazing talents of local and regional artists but the best outcome of the evening was connections with so many wonderful supporters while raising more than $10,000 towards the renovation of our Main Street Fitchburg facility. We are not done with this event.  At the close of the evening, a number of chairs remained available for bidding.  We are currently accepting offers on all the remaining chairs.  View the SOLD and AVAILABLE the chairs at www.arc-matson.org/chairs.

Arc & Matson Community Services would like to extend our sincere thanks to our sponsors, the artists, the volunteers, supporting staff, and the attendees of the event – the event would not have been a success without YOU.

About the Author: Jennifer Peck

Jennifer Peck has four years experience in the non-profit field.  She comes to us from The United Arc of Franklin and Hampshire Counties, Inc. in Greenfield MA, bringing her significant talents in Fundraising Development as well as public relations, social media marketing, and website design.