Last Saturday (October 11th) the Alliance of AIDS Services – Carolina put on the 18th annual Works of Heart Art Auction at the AJ Fletcher Opera Theatre.

This year marked an exciting change to the normal process of carrying out the live part of the auction. Staff that were present throughout the audience were carrying lit wands to draw attention to as well as encourage bidders. It was almost in the same vein as flag semaphore, but much more rapid as well as festive.

The recently lit spire atop of RBC Plaza makes for a nice view from the upper level window.

I heard over a loudspeaker that over $13,600 was raised from the silent auction. I don’t know how much was raised during the live auction, but I’ll update this post once I get the numbers.

When asked what the AAS-C is up to during the rest of the year outside of the annual art auction, Dolly Sickles gave me the following information:

Our community fundraisers all go to fund our work in the community. Though there are over 32,000 North Carolinians living with HIV disease, we serve over 1,000 clients in Durham, Orange and Wake County, through compassionate and non-judgmental care, prevention, education and advocacy.

We have two client services locations–one in Wake and one in Durham County, both of which have food pantries. Additionally, we have two residential facilities (Hustead House in Wake County and Orange House in Orange County). At our Wake and Durham County offices, we offer NTS testing (HIV/AIDS/STDs). Our annual fundraisers are the AIDSWALK+RIDE (in May), Works of Heart (in October) and the Red Ribbon Ball (coinciding on or around World AIDS Day on Dec. 1).

Nearly each month, we host Drag Bingo, either downtown in Durham at the Armory or in Raleigh at Raleigh Little Theatre.

Art Sperry (pictured above) was the Master of Ceremonies, and has been so for 18 years (since the very first auction).

Otto received a special birthday surprise before the event kicked off, complete with a cake, loud cheers, and applause.

There was a multitude of highly talented and noteworthy local artists whose work(s) were on display, including my personal favorite Raleigh artist/photographer – Doug Van de Zande. His piece (pictured above) was a large-format photograph of construction workers who were in the process of building the new Convention Center – which is currently housing two of his exhibits.

This was the first time I attended the Works of Heart auction, and can say it won’t be my last. Both the silent auction as well as the live auction featured some fantastic pieces of art. With an exceedingly lively audience, auctioneer, and auction assistants, the live auction provided some of the best local entertainment I’ve seen in recent recollection.