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Stories

We love to hear how artists are engaging their artwork to meet needs in the world. We believe their stories are worth telling and hope you enjoy hearing about them as well.

Surfrider Foundation’s San Diego Chapter Art Gala: 2015

San Diego's Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation has been steadily recruiting artists to donate work for years for what has become an annual ritual of art for nonprofit activity that has at times involved most, if not all of our current roster of artists.

If artists giving of their talents to help make their world a better place is something of interest to you and you're in the area when these folks put on their next art gala, do yourself a favor and get your body in the room to enjoy it for yourself. You will be stoked.

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Artist: Erik Abel
Funds Raised: $1,500
Nonprofit: Surfrider Foundation's San Diego Chapter

Erik Abel generously donated the two original pieces below to Surfrider San Diego's annual art gala in 2013 as well as a 24x36" canvas print for their 2015 gala held on May 8, 2015.  

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SURFRIDER DONATION

 

Artist: Wade Koniakowsky
Funds Raised: $350
Nonprofit: Surfrider Foundation's San Diego Chapter

"Surfrider foundation is a group of surfers on a mission raise awareness about the growing problem of ocean pollution. Each year they have an Art Gala to raise funds for the San Diego Chapter and for many years I have donated art."

-Wade Koniakowsky

Print Proceeds supporting Trinidad Elementary School

Various Limited Edition Canvas Prints

by Matt Beard 
Funds Raised: $120
Nonprofit: Trinidad School

AidCurrent artist Matt Beard has made several of his Limited Edition Canvas Prints available for purchase from the Trinidad School allowing the school to retain a gallery-level 40% commission from each sale.

"Well, I figure that if a gallery earns their commission by connecting the artist with buyers, then how much radder is it when a school's office can do the same thing? Stoked to support."

Abel Arts Collective

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We're going to interupt our regular schedule of stories of how artists have been using their art to benefit others to step back and bring a bit more inspiration to the table. AidCurrent artist Erik Abel, along with his "office manager/bookkeeper/marketing director/wife" Nellie Abel have taken artistic altruism a step further than most of us. Yes, Erik donates a significant amount of work to organizations and projects that he believes in, but seeing the potential to do more than simply donate, in 2014 they took on the daunting task of forming a nonprofit arm of their own to enable them to weave giving & conscious activism into the very fabric of Erik's business model as a professional artist. 

We're stoked to introduce to you the Abel Arts Collective

Live Art supporting Food For People

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"The Song Rises"

36" x 36"
Acrylic on Canvas
by Matt Beard 
Funds Raised: $125
Nonprofit: Food For People

AidCurrent artist Matt Beard painted "The Song Rises" from start to finish on stage during a musical performance from Josephine Johnson at a packed out Arcata Playhouse show on February 24, 2015. $125 was donated out of the sale of the finished piece to Humboldt based nonprofit Food For People.

Live Art supporting Trinidad Elementary School Music & Arts Programs

"Convergence"

36"x36"
Acrylic on Canvas
by Matt Beard
Funds Raised: $450
Nonprofit: Trinidad Elementary School's Music & Art Programs

AidCurrent artist Matt Beard painted this piece titled "Convergence" on February 9, 2015 at the Trinidad Town Hall during a fundraising event for Trinidad School's art and music programs. $450 from the final sale went to the cause.

AidCurrent 1.0 raises $11,264.05 in First Year

During one year of trial and error from 2013-2014, AidCurrent artist Matt Beard was able to use his artwork to raise $11,264.05 for various nonprofits and great causes in his community. Encouraged by the results and jazzed by the good vibes of seeing his art do so much good in the world, he began the long hard task of retooling the whole concept and laying the growth-ready groundwork to expand the platform and include more artists and position the project to do even more to make the world a better place. The downtime was longer than he'd hoped for, but he's excited to finally get things rolling again.

Origins

By Matt Beard

AidCurrent was officially launched in 2013 as a testing ground for ideas I’d been kicking around about using artwork to do more good in the world than just paying my bills. Granted, I have a family with three kids to support so paying my bills is doing a whole lot of good for a few people that mean the world to me, but I’d always yearned to do more for others as well. I reckon it’s just how I was raised.

The seeds of this project were planted back in 2011-2012 when I launched an art-meets-needs fundraising project for SurfAid International called the Board Art Benefit, which was far more successful than I had even hoped for. When asked to invite a few artists to have some booth space at the Sacred Craft Surfboard Show in Del Mar, CA, I figured if I could convince the artists to team up with surfboard shapers and we all agreed to make the sales benefit SurfAid International then perhaps we would somehow be hooked up with free booth space and maybe even cold beers during the show. It worked without a hitch. Well sort of.

The only hitch was that it worked too well. I had made it my goal that this fundraising project would benefit not just the nonprofit, but the artists as well. I dedicated a website for the project to showcase their boards, their work, and connect interested collectors with the artists directly. I asked that SurfAid share 50% of each sale with the artists. The theory there was that galleries took 50% anyway so from the artist’s point of view, it would be a no-brainer to put out their best work for this project since they were being fairly compensated for their work.

Next thing I knew I was locked into navigating a yearlong campaign that saw over 40 boards created by some incredibly talented artists and shapers, over $80,000 in sales, with SurfAid International recieving over $25,000 after all artists were paid their 50% for each board sold and all other event costs were covered. It was nuts. But it nearly broke me.

As much as I enjoyed steering the ship (nearly into the rocks at times, but still…) of such a dynamic project for such a good cause, the demands on my time and pressures to meet everyone’s expectations drained me so severely that I wasn’t sure if my art life would recover.

But life goes on (cheers to a few good friends), and after some time and distance I began to think of taking what I’d learned from my experience with the Board Art Benefit and recraft a less demanding project with the same goals of seeing artists benefit from using their art to benefit others.

Most artists donate work regularly to various causes when asked. The more successful an artist becomes the more they are asked to give art away for charities and most artists go along with this program as much as they are able. We cringe when we are told how we will get great “exposure” from this or that charitable event, but yet we go along. The art is donated, often purchased for far less than its value, and we are thanked for our support and that is often all that comes from our efforts.

In October of 2013 I launched the first rendition of AidCurrent and used myself as a guinea pig to test out all sorts of ideas for pro-actively using artwork to benefit others, and with the help of some generous supporters I’ve been able to make some big upgrades to the site and platform that will allow us to do far more than I could before. As we grow and include more artists that are using their work for good out there, we’ll continue to pursue a bigger vision for what we can do together.

My thinking with this AidCurrent project for now is to provide a tool for artists to use where they can easily showcase the cumulative impact their art can have for good in the world. Small amounts matter because they add up. Stories can be told and archived so the public can gain a better sense of what each artist is doing with their art. Hopefully AidCurrent inspires each artist to do more with their art, but also inspires each of you who visit this site to do more for good in your world with your unique gifts and talents as well.

Thanks for hearing my story,

2015-Signature

 

Erik Abel Creates Series that Raises $7,681 for Heal the Bay

 

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Heal the Bay Series

by Erik Abel
Funds Raised: $7,681
Nonprofit: Heal the Bay

As the 2013 Partner Artist, Abel created three original paintings which were used to produce limited edition art prints, limited edition products, and event artwork for Heal the Bay's annual Bring Back the Beach Gala fundraiser event.

Two of the original paintings were sold for a 50% donation to Heal the Bay. The third original, which was used as the design for the Gala, was auctioned off at the Gala for a 100% donation to Heal the Bay. Limited edition paper prints, water bottles, and iPhone Cases featuring the artwork of all three designs were sold through Abel's website, with 15% of sales benefiting Heal the Bay.

Limited edition prints on wood of each of the paintings were auctioned off at both the Gala and Heal the Bay's fundraiser in conjunction with WestEdge, with 50% of sales benefiting Heal the Bay.