The CitySquares Blog

Last night’s CommuniTee Art Project celebration was a huge success! The event got rolling at about 6:00 at Gallery XIV and guests just kept pouring in, each one of them donating at least $20 to the CommuniTee Art Project, with the proceeds going to fund local school art programs in the South End. That $20 got each guest a blue ticket which entitled them to a CommuniTee shirt. Some people donated well over $20, giving cash, cutting checks and handing over their credit cards for $40, $50, $60, even more!

And speaking of tee shirts, how about the winning designs? Well, we’ve got two winners for you, and they were unveiled last night. So here you are!

With 590 votes, we have a winning design from Yanniel, a talented student at the McKinley School! Her design, depicted here to the right, is printed on a black tee shirt. We sold a bunch of them last night and the staff at The Red Fez wore them with pride all evening, and they’ll be wearing them for a full week!

The second winning design, with a whopping 616 votes, from student artist Dashawn with the McKinley school, is shown here to the right! We sold a ton of these last night too.

(Click the pictures to see a larger view.)

All the student art submissions were fantastic. One thing that really struck us all at CitySquares was just how each and every piece of art really captured the essence of the South End, and neighborhood life there. Congratulations to all the students, from both schools, for raking in well over a thousand votes from the community! This was a very competitive contest and every student was a winner.

That’s just the beginning too, because last nights event raised nearly $3000! All that money is going to the McKinley and the Joseph J Hurley school art programs! That’s money for construction paper, for scissors, for paint brushes, and finger paint, and for clay, and crayons, markers. That money also came from the silent auction, which was a big success! We had dozens of local businesses donate all sorts of goods, from wine, to wine tastings, to art work, puzzles, and even a pair of Red Sox tickets! It was a huge success, and it even got a little competitive!

Many have asked and the answer is yes, we will do this again in another neighborhood. This was just the first, and we learned a lot. We’re ready to apply those lessons to the next CommuniTee Art Project. We’re hearing calls from Roslindale, from Cambridge, and now from Somerville. It’s so great to know that there is such excitement around this project.

Also, please know that these shirts will be on sale at local stores in the South End very soon! They’ll also be on sale on CitySquares too! That all starts next week, so be on the lookout. We’ll update the blog, so stay tuned.

We have pictures from last night if you’d like to see them. Most of the pics were taken by my father, Joel Saren, who was kind enough to spend most of his time last night behind the viewfinder in his Nikon, and also a few from me, and from Julie Edwards, our Community Liaison. We’ll have a video up soon too, once it’s been edited. That should be great!

Once again we want to thank everyone who helped make this first CommuniTee Art Project a success…

• Will Kerr with Gallery XIV for letting us have the celebration at his awesome gallery, during Chris Hauck’s very cool and appropriate exhibition titled “Identity Crisis.”
• Akon and Oz from The Red Fez for their fantastic food and service at the celebration, and for putting up with us afterwards at their restaurant!
• The dozens of silent auction donors for their generosity and good will!
• Matt Ellis with Ellis Strategies, Chris Haynes with CBH Communications for their creativity and hard work, and for their passion for this project.
• Caitlin Sullivan at CitySquares for her extraordinary effort to make all this happen. Great work Caitlin!
• Bianca de la Garza from WCVB in Boston, who just lights up a room and who gave the CommuniTee Art Project such great exposure, and for bringing husband and fellow local celebrity David Wade as well the charming and adorable Danica.
• But, most importantly, we want to thank Rose, Ari, and Mr. Molina with the Boston Public Schools who are the real heroes in our community, and who work so hard to do what they do. Their jobs are the hardest of any, and they deserve the spotlight.

Stay tuned for more!

– Ben