2021 Arts & Appetizers event raises nearly $50,000

The BISD Education Foundation raised $49,036 at the 16th annual Arts and Appetizers event. Emerging artists from the Brenham Independent School District showcased and auctioned their brilliant art pieces during the event held in the ballroom at Ant Street Inn. This year’s event was held both live and virtually. Navigating the social-distancing standards, the Silent Auction was open a week before the event and was available at the live event through QR codes. The online silent auction received an abundance of support virtually and was a huge success. Multiple remote bidders registered early and kept the silent auction engaging, while those present were actively competing against the online bidders. The auction was streamed to the remote audience via Zoom, and provided bidders the opportunity to place their bids in the comments. This added excitement and healthy bid wars, and was entertaining to hear auctioneer, Rusty Mertink, engage with the remote and live audiences. Multiple sponsors, local officials, community members, parents, and BISD staff adapted to the change and allowed for a very successful event. 

Preliminary totals from the BISD Education Foundation reflect a total of $49,036 raised during the event, both live and virtually, surpassing last year’s total of $46,011 by $3,025! This year, $24,702 was brought in through the live and silent auctions, $6,110 was raised by the raffle tickets, and $18,100 was donated to the Foundation through donations and sponsorships.  

KWHI Article 1

KWHI Article 2

We'd like to say THANK YOU to all of our event sponsors. This year we raised over $18,000 through sponsorships. We truly appreciate the continued support for the students of BISD!

2020 Arts & Appetizers raises almost $50,000

Being our 15th year as a Foundation, we set high goals and aspirations of awarding the most mini-grants since our founding for the upcoming fall. With the turn-out and amazing support of this years Arts & Appetizers, we may just meet those goals!!

This year's event had the best artwork that we've seen in 15 years. In fact, we faced our first-ever experience of not being able to decide on the invitational artwork. We selected two seniors art pieces, printing two different invitations and a third senior's art piece as the media outlet/promotional invitation. 

This years live auction hit record-high bidding, and all items sold above average. Due to the generous support of Corporate and Local Sponsors helping us host the event, and the tremendous outpour of support from local businesses, community members, parents and BISD staff we were able to generate over $18,000 more than last years event!!! 

We continue to grow and surpass past number of audience attendees and revenue each year, and we couldn't be more excited. THANK YOU for all of the continued support. We thoroughly enjoy working alongside the talented artists' of BISD, and generating revenue for additional resources for BISD staff.

Check out the links below for additional information and footage of the event! 

Click HERE to view Arts & Appetizers 2020

Arts & Appetizers makes the NEWS

KWHI Article

Banner Press Article

KAGSTV Photos

2019 Arts & Appetizers

The 14th Annual Arts & Appetizers Event was the BEST ONE to date, raising over $33,000 !!! The Event was held at a new venue, Ant Street Inn in Downtown, Brenham and pulled in a record breaking audience. The artwork was phenomenal, and the highlight of the night was the sell of Jill Rosenbaum's piece, "Watchful Ranch Hand," which sold to Ray Morris of Bar CR Ranch for $2,100.00 !!! We are extremely honored and privileged to work alongside the BISD emerging artists' and hold this special and successful event which raises money for Brenham Public Schools. 

https://kwhi.com/arts-and-appetizers-event-raises-over-33000/

https://kwhi.com/crowd-fills-ant-street-ballroom-for-arts-and-appetizers-event/

https://kwhi.com/brenham-isd-set-to-host-arts-and-appetizers-at-ant-street-inn/

2018 Arts & Appetizers 

The 2018 Arts & Appetizers Event was a HUGE SUCCESS !!!! We are so proud and honored to hold such a special fundraiser that allows the BISD art students to showcase their work.