On Sunday, May 1, The Herb + Milly Iris Gallery at SOPAC, Good Crowd Events and Fire in the Belly Art Making hosted Art for Ukraine, a pop-up art sale fundraiser.

More than 50 artists participated, over 30 pieces were sold and there were 130+ attendees—some regular supporters and many new faces. Plus, the event raised nearly $6,000. All proceeds will benefit Razom, an organization responding to the crisis in Ukraine.

This special event punctuated the amazing accomplishments we can achieve when we come together as a community. The outpouring of compassion and urgency to address a crisis halfway across the world was truly touching and inspiring.

A huge thank you to everyone who supported Art for Ukraine!

Jeremy Moss, curator for The Herb + Milly Iris Gallery at SOPAC and co-owner of Good Crowd Events with Cat Delett, along with Barbara Bickart of Fire in the Belly Art Making hatched the idea for Art for Ukraine.

“There are a lot of people in the art world who wanted to do something to help Ukraine but didn’t know what,” says Moss. “As artists, you feel better when you don’t just give money. You want to make something, you want to do something that’s meaningful.”

As Bickart put it, “the easiest way for artists to get involved and get engaged and show support is by doing the thing that they do best.”

One participating artist on Instagram said, “these past few weeks as the war in Ukraine drags on I have felt sad, ashamed, and deeply disappointed to be Russian. Realistically there is not much I can do to help fix this situation. Putin has been in power since I was 6 years old. I am 30 now. Still, it is good to be able to contribute to help Ukraine, even in this small way.”

The breadth of the donated work ranged from ceramics to jewelry and textiles, in addition to two-dimensional art.

Moved by the opportunity to help, SOPAC employees got in on the action, too. SOPAC’s Development Manager Katelyn Fatzler, as well as Moss, both made pieces for the sale.

The full price of each piece was donated to Razom, an organization that was born out of the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. In 2021, Razom was a recipient of the Guidestar Gold Transparency Award, the highest award given to non-profit organizations regarding overall accountability. Razom means “together” in Ukrainian.