Illustration students team up with musicians at fundraising event

STORY & PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN SAGADORE

Sheridan’s Illustration students joined forces with local rock bands on October 19 for a fundraising event.

The show took place at Lourice, a Mediterranean restaurant across the street from the Trafalgar campus. It was orchestrated by fourth-year Illustration student Scott Shields, along with Chris Flynn and Chris Laurignano of Little Men Promotions, a promotional company that puts on rock shows in Oakville.

Shields said the idea for a fundraising event came to him after attending an earlier show put on by Little Men Promotions.

“I spoke to Chris (Laurignano) at the end of the night and he told me to message their Facebook page,” said Shields. “I did just that and now the fundraiser is a real thing.”

Scott Shields auctioning off some prizes

The money raised will help Illustration students rent space where they can showcase art for future employers.

“We’re having different fundraising events at different points in the year leading up to our grad show and this is one of them,” said Axel Kimnpar, a fourth-year student who was at the show. “We have to rent a space for our grad show and buy snacks for everyone. We have to pay for it all by ourselves so we do fundraising throughout the year.”

Prior to the show Shields was positive about the event, saying: “I hope to expose not only my classmates to a whole new market, but an audience to new art,” said Shields. “I hope by the end of the night people will have a better understanding of what illustration is, and be interested in it.”

Oakville-based band Old Flame was the first to take the stage, playing a 30-minute progressive-rock infused set.

Other bands included Baby Labour, Bare Claws and Bike Thiefs. (And yes, the “grammatically inept” band is aware that “Thieves” is the proper plural.)

BIke Thiefs tear the house down

Before the music-filled night came to an halt there was an auction for three tin baskets filled with band tees, rare vinyl records, CDs as well as art pieces by Illustration students.

The only disappointment of the night, according to Shields was the size of the attendance. About 40 people showed up.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little disappointed,” he said. “But at the same time some people have early class tomorrow. It’s the week before reading week so it wasn’t that big of a surprise.”

Promoter Laurignano said more people were expected.

“Over 90 people RSVP’d to the Facebook page that was created for the show,” he said. “Usually we get even more people than what it says on Facebook.”

Despite the low turnout, the fund-raiser pulled in $256 between the auction and the five-dollar cover charge.

“I honestly thought the show was really good,” said Flynn. “The artwork that was shown by the Illustration students was great, I thought the bands played great but it would have been nicer if we could’ve had more people at the show.”

Maybe next time.

“Hopefully this was a trial-type show,” said Flynn. “So we can make some improvements for the next one.”