#MakeItBlue charity auction

Art initiative supporting mental health charities to offer a lifeline to people devastated emotionally and financially by Covid-19.
 
When we attend concerts, shows and festivals, we’re caught up in the experience of the music: the sound, the lights, the performers ... the whole joyous event.  What we’re not aware of, is the army of people working backstage to create those mesmerizing performances – the sound engineers, the set designers and builders, the make-up artists and countless other behind-the-scenes professionals who contribute, invisibly, to our lasting memories.

With live performance venues and spaces standing silent during 2020, those same people, many thousands of them, who should be pulling together to create the infrastructure for world-class performances, have lost, or are about to lose their jobs. With no likelihood of work for the foreseeable future, they are anxious and frightened.  Many don’t know where to turn for help.

Stunning images

Enter #MakeItBlue: a group of live events professionals who came together at the start of lockdown. The group’s first campaign, #LightItBlue, used its collective network of contacts to prompt thousands of landmarks and iconic buildings around the world to light up blue every Thursday night, in a gesture of gratitude to all healthcare and frontline workers. The stunning images of landmarks bathed in blue light - from the London Eye to Niagara Falls - drew huge international media interest.

Since then, the original group of like-minded associates formalised into a community interest company (CIC),  dedicated to raising funds and awareness for relevant mental health charities and initiatives.

Artists, designers, illustrators and photographers

#MakeItBlue’s mission is to support live events industry colleagues who are in need, and also to promote public mental health awareness through arts, entertainment and cultural projects.

The group is now reaching out to artists, designers, illustrators and photographers to ask for their help. The simple request is for creatives to:

• Produce an artwork with a blue theme (any size; any medium)
• Sign the artwork
• Donate it to the #MakeItBlue campaign – by 13 November.

The #MakeItBlue team will auction the artworks in the run-up to Christmas. Proceeds will be donated to Samaritans and to Stagehand – the Production Services Association Welfare and Benevolent Fund, so that people in need can receive financial, emotional or therapeutic support.

The full story of #MakeItBlue, together with information on the charities it supports, can be found here.

Next steps

If you are willing and able to donate an artwork, Sarah Webster at #MakeItBlue would be delighted to hear from you, so please email her at:  info@makeitblue.uk, or phone 07950 035897 for further details.