A special event will take place at Macworld Conference & Expo in New York City later this month. With the help of IDG World Expo, Macworld Magazine and months of work and support from everyone in the MacCentral forum community, the MacCentral Mosaic will be auctioned off at the conference with 100 percent of the proceeds going to United Cerebral Palsy.
“Mac Publishing is honored to be able to help facilitate this member driven event,” said Colin Crawford, CEO of Mac Publishing, publishers of Macworld and MacCentral. “As well as allowing Macworld Expo attendees to bid, we’ll also allow the whole community to place offers online to ensure as many people a possible get a chance to participate.”
Organized by 35 members of MacCentral’s forums, the Mosaic grew from an idea that forum member Sean Barley (forum name Nebosuke) suggested a few months ago, to a full charity auction supporting United Cerebral Palsy. Forum member Steve Greenblatt (steveg) suggested donating the proceeds to charity and to use Macworld Expo as the place to launch a project Macintosh users, many graphics professionals themselves, could relate with.
When the fundraising idea was adopted, MacCentral asked members to submit recommendations for a beneficiary. A list of 11 organizations was compiled and a poll was conducted to select the winner. United Cerebral Palsy was ultimately selected as the beneficiary of the fundraiser, which was fitting since David Scott, a member of the forum, has cerebral palsy.
“We’re very pleased that MacCentral and IDG World Expo have chosen United Cerebral Palsy to benefit from proceeds raised from the sale of this mosaic,” said Edward Matthews, executive director, United Cerebral Palsy. “We’re looking forward to the auction at Macworld in July.”
Thirty-five tiles in all, each artist contributed the artwork for one 4 x 4 inches tile — the full size Mosaic measures 28 x 20 inches. None of the artists involved in the project knew what any of the others were doing for their tile. The artists would pass on 25 pixels of their finished tile to the next person to give them a place to start, but that’s all each other knew about the others work.
“The mosaic is an artistic creation which encapsulates the imagination and capabilities of the Mac community,” said Charlie Greco, president and CEO of IDG World Expo. “It’s even more meaningful since it was created to benefit such a worthy cause.”
Five of the Mosaics are traveling through the United States and Canada this month to be signed by the individual artists. Artists as far away as New Zealand and Spain that have participated in the project will digitally sign the Mosaic when it arrives in New York later this month.
Many of the forum members are graphics professionals or are involved in the printing business in one way or another. Many companies and individuals donated time, money and resources to make the Mosaic a reality. The five canvas prints that are being signed and an Artist Profile Booklet that will accompany the winning bids were donated by Alec Fromm’s (Mississauga) company AP COM. The Booklet will contain information about the Mosaic project and how it began, artists bios, information about Cerebral Palsy and much more.
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In addition to the five canvas Mosaic prints that will be up for auction at Macworld Expo, David Bear (NucleusG4) arranged for 500 unsigned posters to be donated by MegaColor of Pompano Beach, Florida and will be available for purchase at the show.
Organized by Bill Cameron (Bukk) and donated by Your Town Press and Precision Digital Imaging, postscards will be available at the show with a picture of the Mosaic on the front. CDs have also been duplicated and donated by German Wiernik (Mactico) that will contain a replica of the MacCentral Mosaic Web site built by forum member Hagen Kaye (JonnyCat). The CDs, like the unsigned posters, will be available for purchase at the show — all proceeds of these sales will also be going to United Cerebral Palsy.
By clicking on any one of the tiles on the Mosaic Web site, users can get information on the artist, what hardware and software was used and a close up of the artists tile. Hardware ranging from a Power Mac 8500 to today’s desktop G4s and software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Macromedia Flash MX and Dreamweaver were used in its creation.
“The MacCentral Project Mosaic 2002 is not only a great example of utilizing the Web for a good cause, but the mosaic itself is also presented online in an innovative way,” said Beth Davis, senior vice president, Macromedia. “Using Macromedia Flash MX and Dreamweaver MX, MacCentral created a site that shows off the great content as well as the talented people behind this mosaic, by delivering an innovative way to navigate the mosaic, and an expanded view of the content and detailed designer background for each tile.”
The silent auction will begin when the show floor opens at Macworld Expo on July 17. Stop by the MacCentral Mosaic booth #1850 to make your bid and to speak with some of the artists and representatives from United Cerebral Palsy.