As one of its professional development fund raising events, the Chatham Marketing Association (CMA) hosted an art fair in Mellon Board Room last Friday. The Young Art Fair had several art pieces, paintings, and gifts donated from different local stores.

Debbie Delong, the faculty advisor for the CMA, said, “Every year we plan a number of events for professional development. We basically do everything we can to get more applied experience with marketing skills and getting students ready to be professional marketers.”

Christina Fortunato, Junior and member of CMA, said, “From a business stand point we had to market ourselves. We had to get donations from local businesses around the area and then we also went to Children’s Hospital to see if they could paint beautiful pictures, and everyone was really involved in it.”

The art fair also had henna, face painting, handmade accessories, art pieces, and a bake sale. Addressing the payment method, Delong explained, “When you buy art or you buy bake sale items, you buy tickets and pay for things using the tickets.”

The event brought in a total of $1,100. Chatham Marketing Association will donate $400 to the Free Care Fund at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The artists that were showcased made $270 from the pieces sold during the event, and the remainder of the money will go back to CMA to cover the costs of the fair.

The Young Art Fair was a mix of student’s passions in art and marketing. Fortunato said, “I actually just started working in the marketing club. And of course I love art and I do ceramics and I came up with the idea of having an art fair to support the Free Care Fund for Children’s Hospital.”

Lynzy Groves, another member of the CMA, said “This is my first year in CMA because I just switched majors. My major is marketing now and am just happy to be a part of such a great event because I love art and that was my former major, and it is really neat to see the two married together.”

During the fair, people had the chance to make simple art pieces made of paper and buy paintings done by kids in the Children’s Hospital. Groves, who was responsible for the kids painting booth, said, “There are 22 pieces in total and we are actually doing a sign up option for all of the pieces.”

The booth also had a wish tree, and many visitors wrote wishes for children at the Children’s Hospital. The tree will be taken back to the hospital and displayed for each of the kids.

About their opinion of the CMA event, sophomore Elina Lankinen said, “I think it is really impressive I didn’t realize that there will be so much art and stuff like this.”

Senior Emily Kocian, who visited the art fair, said “I heard about the art fair through several e-mails that I got, and I got interested in coming to check out all the artwork, and then the Children’s Hospital work as well. I love handmade art–especially paintings–so I’m building my collection even though am a poor college student.”