MagnificART 2024…BRING OUR BELOVED ASSUMPTION NUNS BACK HOME!
by Ana de Villa- Singson
MagnificART 2024 is a reprise of the successful Magnificart 2020 auction. Its history is rooted in the pandemic era when all of AAA’s fundraising activities, the bazaar and the golf tournament were put on hold. Cocooned in the safe havens of our homes, we lacked a fundraising activity to fund the AAA Mission schools and scholars nationwide. The idea of an online auction was born!
It was a Herculean task to organize an online auction virtually. But with the help of a dynamic team, we not only prevailed…we raised a record-breaking amount! And with that, I hung my auction cap. Phew! What an experience! One for the books … but not one that I would undertake again. Happily, the pandemic waned and we ventured outdoors again and we were able to successfully resume our bazaar and golf tournaments. All was well!
There were many requests to mount another online auction, it was an additional revenue stream after all. Each time, I politely declined; there were other activities to serve the purpose. But one day, the photo of a painting was sent to me via Viber. It was to be auctioned. A solo painting. I ignored it. Suddenly, a committee was formed. I did not participate. And then another message came through. The beneficiary for the solo painting auction would be our very much loved Assumption nuns. The proceeds from that solo sale would be donated in full towards the rebuilding of the home of our purple-clad mothers. That made me take notice. That was a cause any Old Girl would rally behind. For the first time, I engaged. I told the group that we could not raise good funds with a single auction item. We would need at least 90 pieces to be decent. We would exhibit a few pieces during Assumption Day Mass, then launch full scale online. By the time we launched, MagnificART was a full scale online auction with over 300 specially created paintings, sculptures, jewelry, home furnishings and accessories. In the end, we raised thrice our profit target, netting a sizable amount.
Why did we embark on this?
We salute all our artists for trusting us to showcase their prodigious talent. Thank you for joining us and rallying to our cause!
We salute the irrefutable talent of our Old Girls! Magnificart became even more meaningful with your participation. Thank you, Old Girls👏
We are overwhelmingly grateful to our donors who so generously donated paintings and auction items in full!
There were many among us who did not purchase an auction item but who wanted to show their love for our nuns nonetheless. They donated toward our cause of rebuilding the home of our nuns in stead. We call them MagnificART Name Sponsors. Thank you to our wonderful name sponsors!
It always, always takes a village. Thank you to the MagnificART 2024 committee who sourced auction items, spent long weary hours uploading pages, art works, formatting our auction pages. Thank you for your big hearts and passionate spirit.
And to all our buyers, you not only have a beautiful auction item to grace your home, you also helped us rebuild the home of our beloved Assumption nuns piece by piece, brick by brick. It takes many parts to build a whole; thank you for the beautiful part you played bringing our nuns home.
MagnificART, its name pays homage to Magnificat…the Canticles of Mary. On the eve of the auction, a few hours before we opened our online doors, an artist-donor and friend, Clarisse Banson, sent her painting as a donation to MagnificART. I held my breath in wonder when I saw it. It was the painting of a thistle. Legend from the Middle Ages has it that milk from Our Lady’s breast fell on the thistles she was resting on when she was nursing Baby Jesus. The white veins on the thistle’s leaves originate from those fallen drops of milk. The thistle has since then been an emblem of Our Lady. I held my breath in wonder and suddenly, all my fears for the auction disappeared. Our Lady had come to us in MagnificART.