Entrance to Saturday's fundraiser.

If you’re an artist who’s passionate about politics, and you’re looking to contribute in a concrete way to the presidential campaign, what do you do?

That was the question six local artists kicked around this summer. They’d been meeting as a critique group, but “being a bunch of liberal Democrats, we’d been talking politics, too,” says Leslie Sobel. As for that question, she says, “Well, the obvious answer is to sell art.”

So sell art they did. Saturday night’s Obama Art-O-Rama fundraiser featured a silent auction of donated work from more than 80 local artists. The event was held at the Ann Arbor home of Carl Rinne and Tamara Real, executive director of the Arts Alliance. Before a single piece of art had been sold, they were already halfway to their goal of $10,000. (An update from Sobel came a bit after midnight – their total reached $10,500 for the evening.)

Supporters of Barack Obama streamed into the Fountain Street neighborhood, quickly filling all three levels of the renovated 1907 former church. Each guest paid a $25 entrance fee – an amount they could apply to their bid on art – then entered the house to roam through the rooms, check out the art on display, buy Obama T-shirts or decals, nosh and drink and chat with other Obama supporters while listening to the Pete Siers trio and, later in the evening, a set by guitarist Dick Siegel.

Martha Ceccio and Leslie Sobel check in guests for the Obama Art-O-Rama.

The original group of six – Sobel, Lynda Cole, Connie Cronenwett, Martha Ceccio, Candace Pappas and Betty Schwartz – had been joined by artists Pat Truzzi and Madeleine Vallier to form the core group of organizers. They used their own networks as well as the local Obama campaign website to publicize the event. As word got out, people jumped on board to contribute art or volunteer in other ways.

“It just had an energy of its own,” Sobel says.

Not surprisingly, the area’s creative community was well represented. Local artist Margaret Parker, chair of the city’s Commission on Art in Public Places, had donated a piece of her work, and praised both the artists who organized the event as well as Tamara Real. Parker described Real as “one of the columns who holds up the arts community in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County.”

Bill Worzel – Sobel’s husband and CEO of Genetics Squared – served as MC for the evening. Among the more than 200 people who attended were Eileen Spring, executive director of Food Gatherers, and Stephen Rapundalo, Ann Arbor city council member and president of the trade group MichBio.

Tamara Real talks to a guest at Saturday's event, hosted at her Fountain Street home.

Here’s a list of other artists who contributed their work for the fundraiser: Paul Hickman, Debbie Golden, Lois Lovejoy, Anne Kirvan, Barbara Goodsitt, Barbara Brown, Judy Spike, Joan Plohr, Marge Pacer, Corinne Vivian, Jim and Angie George, Annette Baron, Carol Morris, Michelle Hegyi, Christy Kelly Bengten, Marsi and Bill Parker Darwin, Adrienne Kaplan, Kate Tremel, Norma Penchasky Glasser, Jon Wilson, IB Remson, Royce Disbrow, Ava Gilzow, Victoria Schon, Esther Kirschenbaum, Laurie Wechter, Tammy Bourque, Dorothy Eshelman, Janet Gallup, Karen Gallup, Liz Brauer, Jean Lau, Beth Colaner-Kenney, Paul Malbeauf, Ryan Forrey, Gail Rucker, Betsy Emrich, Jaye Schlesinger, Jayna Eckler, Ethel Potts, Susan Moran, Ilona Brustad, Anne Savage, Chris Savage, Michael Andes, Kent Walton, Idelle Hammond-Sass, Laura Strowe, Jill Love, Joy Shannon, Janet Kellman, Rebecca Lambers, Carol Furtado, Michael Rodemer, Julie Fremuth, Joan Rosenblum, John Savistsky and Donna Novack.

The Obama Art-O-Rama was held in this Fountain Street home, a former church.

Obama supporters were elbow-to-elbow at Saturday's fundraiser.

Bake sale for Obama at Third and Liberty. In background, Carrie Hatcher-Kay, with Elijah and Amelia.

“John McCain says he supports cider in the fall, but …,” joked Benjamin Paloff on his walk back from the Farmers Market, stopping at the Obama bake sale at the corner of First and Liberty. Saturday was Day Two of a projected three-day effort to register voters, sell some cookies and cider – plus some art – and enjoy the beautiful weather, all in support of Barack Obama’s campaign. Actually, as the sign made clear, it was half in support of the campaign: “Full Disclosure 50% for Obama 50% shared amongst the kids”

Two of the kids, Elijah and Amelia, belonged to Carrie Hatcher-Kay, who was providing the on-site adult supervision. She related how explaining to a three-year-old why their family supports Obama had to be reduced to basics.

That means Obama: looks for other energy besides oil; inspires everyone to get involved; loves the air, the trees, the water, and wants to keep them clean. Plus, John McCain has eight houses and he doesn’t like to share.

Jonathan Barney showing off some Obama-themed artwork purchased at the bake sale.

Sharing was a key ingredient in the choice of the bake sale site, because none of the bake sale staff lived at the house where it was taking place. Jane Barney, who Hatcher-Kay described as their “adopted in-state great grandmother,” was sharing her front lawn with them.

She met Barney some 15 years ago serving together on the board of Canterbury House, when Barney would have been a year short of 80. At the bake sale when The Chronicle arrived was Jonathan Barney, Jane’s son, who retired from a 30-year career working for the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago.

He was headed off to the Michigan-Illinois game and was dressed like you’d expect a UM alum on homecoming weekend to dress. Before leaving he mentioned that the house where his mom now lived used to be an SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) house.

The bake sale was prepped for registering people to vote. One man stopped by while The Chronicle was there just to confirm that he was registered.

Jane herself came out briefly for a chat before we were finished documenting the bake sale, and asked if The Chronicle knew the history of the house: it was one of the houses the Staeblers built back around 1910. What about the SDS era? Barney laughed and reported that there was a basement door with a red fist painted on it, which attested to that part of the house’s history.

Barney’s name will be familiar to Chronicle readers who remember the beginnings of Avalon Housing or the New Hope clinic. She helped push those projects forward. And some might remember her as a Ward 5 Democratic Party “boss,” although Hatcher-Kay said, “she was not at all boss-like.”

Total revenue for the first day’s bake sale was around $30 with the second day’s effort projected to be close to that. The third day’s activity would be a function of the kids’ energy level. The total was partly a function of the cookies’ price point: $0.25. As Elijah (age 3) said, “Everybody says keep the change!” Makes cents for a campaign with a slogan, “Change you can believe in.” The plan was to hand over the Obama campaign’s share in person at the local Obama headquarters at First and Liberty.

The art center at the bake sale.

Upper right corner: the sun. Below (purple and green) flowers and grass. Above (yellow): balloons that escaped!