One evening at our restaurant a local teacher named Tammy Kay was in for dinner with her family. She informed me of an upcoming exhibit of some of the works of Leonardo Da Vinci which was to be held at the Museum in Victoria, B.C. She was hoping to take her thirty grade-five students there and was therefore starting to organize a fundraiser at the school. part of the fundraising was going to be a silent auction and so she asked me if I would be kind enough to donate a gift certificate for fifty or forty dollars that they could put into the silent auction. I replied with a polite “No.”
This probably surprised her as our restaurant has been quick to support thousands of fundraisers in our community over the last forty years, in the arts, education, sports and many other areas. “No,” I repeated, “I won’t give you a gift certificate, but what if I commission each of your students to create their own version of the Mona Lisa? What if I gave them 10$ each as a commission? Thirty students at ten dollars each will give you three hundred dollars, and we could hang the paintings here at Theo’s and get some buzz in the community about your fundraiser.” Tammy thought it a good idea and took it back to her class the next day. She asked her students if they would be interested in this commission, and if they were ok with the final art pieces being part of Theo’s Restaurant Art Collection. She told them that the paintings would be on display at the restaurant and that they would be $300 dollars closer to their fundraising goal. The students agreed and began studying the various techniques Da Vinci utilized in his work, looking at his paintings, sculptures, charcoal work, mosaics and sketches. They created concepts and over several weeks produced thirty unique versions of the Mona Lisa.
One morning, Tammy arrived with the Mona Lisa’s which had been executed in watercolour, pencil, mosaic, photo-collage, pastels, and even as clay sculptures. We displayed them in our courtyard which our guests were noticing was becoming something of a gallery of student work over the years. There was a very supportive and favourable response to the exhibit and so we decided to host a spaghetti dinner one evening and to have the silent auction fundraiser at the restaurant.
We had, I believe for the first time in our family’s restaurant history, hundreds of plates of spaghetti being served. We have a 300-seat restaurant, the place is packed, parents are serving spaghetti, kids are serving it, there’s spaghetti falling off the plates, everyone is involved and having a great time. Students are showing people their Mona Lisa’s, explaining how they produced the works and sharing info about Da Vinci and the upcoming trip. The silent auction table is full of items collected from the community with people bidding on them, and there’s a live auction of some items going on as well.
It was a very fun evening. In the end, instead of giving Tammy and her class a $40 gift certificate, I presented her with a cheque for 300$ for the commissions and another $500 for the proceeds from the dinner. Along with the silent auction items, the class earned around $1800 and they reached their goal of what it would cost to get the class to Victoria and to see the exhibit.
I liked many aspects of this project. I like that the part of the fundraising for the trip, the commissions, could be integrated into Tammy’s art and history classes as part of her curriculum. The studying of Da Vinci and his many different methods had direct relevance for the students as it gave them a starting point for imagining and executing their own Mona Lisa. I liked that it was the student’s efforts at learning about and then creating their piece which got them to the Da Vinci exhibit, not simply the goodwill or financial support of local businesses, parents and people in the community. There was an exchange that happened. They were empowered to realize their travel goal with the opportunity to exchange their own artwork for financial support.
I liked that as a business, we offered an example, perhaps even an invitation, of how businesses could begin to work with teachers and students in our community in new ways. Instead of support by signing a cheque, or writing a gift certificate but instead leveraging what they had to offer to help inspired teachers create the learning experiences they desired for their students. In my case, it was walls and spaghetti. But they were walls that students could share their work on, and walls that people would be looking at, and a whole bunch of spaghetti that could bring people together for one evening to support the students and celebrate their desire to get to Victoria. I like that every student participated in the project, and everyone contributed a piece.
“Everyone helped everyone get to Victoria”. Tammy told me of one of her students, who had a chronic health condition, was unable to comfortably hold a pencil and draw a straight line. For this project, he came in early in the morning, stayed after school and worked hard in order to produce his Mona Lisa. And over the course of a few weeks, he too completed a piece, in pastel. I like how it was all in black and white except for her soft blue eyes and rose coloured lips. Here it is.
Every year, we take out our Mona Lisa collection and put them up on display during the month of February, that’s when our photographs and tapestries come down and the walls explode with children’s artwork. After almost forty years, we have hundreds of pieces of artwork created by children while they were having dinner, as well as hundreds of beautiful hand-painted thank you cards and posters from school visits.
Once we commissioned a grade three classroom to produce valentines and so they too come out each year. This appreciation and admiration for children’s artwork started with my mother, Mary. She has always championed children’s art and always excited to share the beauty she recognizes in them with the rest of the world. Since the restaurant opened, when she noticed children having dinner with their parents creating a drawing, she would have them sign it, date it and then tape them up on our walls.
A small act of public acknowledgement, but I’m sure an important one from a child’s perspective. I’ve had waiters and waitresses at the restaurant who have spotted a painting that they created ten or fifteen years ago as a student, and who were surprised and delighted to see that their paintings meant enough for us to keep them for decades and put them up on our walls. It’s a small act, but I think it matters.
