 Mecca's annual holiday sale is coming up, and Aaron Hutton, the College's Associate Director of Artists at Work, gave Lesley McVane a preview of the great gifts that you can find. Hi, Aaron. Hi. Thank you for being here today, and we're going to be talking about one of my favorite holiday traditions now, the Mecca Holiday Art Sale. Yes. That's great. Yes. When is it this year? So this year is first Friday in December. Oh, so that's the 7th. The 7th and 8th. It's a Friday evening and a Saturday, all day event on Saturday. And how many years has Mecca been doing this? That's a great question, but well over 25 years and counting, and it's been a really huge successful event for the institution. And you are holding it at Mecca? Yes. We have several levels and little cubby holes and all over the place. We expanded last year, so we have it at Main College of Art at the 522 Congress Street Address, and it's on three floors. We expanded last year to the third floor, and this year it's the first, second, and third floor as well, and we take over the building pretty much for those two days. It's wonderful, and every time I go, I buy something. It's great. Sometimes I buy things for myself. Good. And birthday treat, because my birthday is in December. And so I bought earrings, in fact I should have worn the ones I bought last year, but it's fabulous. Tell us a little bit about the sampling of art that will be there. Okay, great. We have 88 tables represented at the sale, but there's also more vendors per table, so we actually have 100 plus artists participating. That's mostly alumni, faculty, students, staff, but we also open it up to community members as well to apply. It's a juried sale, so what's great is you have so many applications that come in, and it's a variety of work. And so the two community members are the Shalom House this year and Reiki Community School. So they applied to be part of the sale, to raise money for their organizations. In addition they'll be work for sale from jurors, I mean from metalsmiths, ceramic artists, painters. We name it jewelry, fine art as well as crafts, and it's a great experience for those artists. And does it bring any money into Mecca, or is it? Yeah, it will bring in money this year. We're doing a special raffle this year, which is unique. We featured six artists, as featured artists this year, and they were selected by the jury, and they represent the highest caliber of work that'll be represented at the sale. Their work is being donated to Main College of Art in order to have a raffle. The raffles are $5 tickets, and everybody has a chance to win, so that'll be great. So we will raise money through bad raffles. That'll be fun, and so the donated pieces will be on display. On display. Oh, how exciting. That's great. It's a good chance to win. The Friday opening, does it start at the same time as all the other galleries at five o'clock? We follow the First Friday Art Walk, and we also extend our hours an extra hour after First Friday Art Walk, because we know so many people want to continue shopping after First Friday. And then it opens at ten, or nine, or ten the next day. And then it closes at five. Terrific. And I know how crowded it gets. But it's well worth fighting the crowds, because the work is, you'll see things you don't see anywhere else. Well, that's great to hear. We try to offer a wide variety of artwork to showcase. And the artwork takes many forms. I know that there are clothing that is like walking art. Right. I mean, it's wonderful. We'll have everything from textiles to tapestries to quilts to ornaments, lots of different things. And I do feel it's unique. It's unique for Portland. Some sales, there's some really amazing sales that take place over the next month. And I like to go to them. But I think Makkah has a unique offering where we really showcase and highlight our artists. Yeah. And... I think so, too. And I think, you know, you're walking away, not with just a gift for somebody or for yourself, in my case. But you're walking away with some art that you'll have forever. Yeah. And some of these young students who have donated work and some of the other people will be well-known or are well-known. We hope so. We have to wrap. So if people want to know more about it, how do they get in touch with you? Well, they can visit our website, mecca.edu, slash holiday sale. And there's a whole website dedicated to the holiday sale, as well as all of our featured artists and all of our vendors. That's great. And we'll be able to find out if they want to submit something to be juried next year. Absolutely. There's an application online. Thank you, Erin, for being here. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure. Thank you.