Charity auction during the Habanos Festival

[Ryan]

I will be posting this in any of the relevant forums...

Some of you probably know that I am working with coffee farms in Pinar del Río. My wife came to Cuba with me last June and started art projects in the schools. Some artist friends in Havana came with us and were impressed with what they saw.

These guys then visited us in Dublin with the idea of having an art auction in Havana during the festival to raise money for the community.
I got quotes and a supplier in Pinar del Rio to install solar panels, storage batteries, fridges and freezers into the local schools for light and safer food.

I told the artists that, as it will be the Habanos Festival, to put forward cigar-related, or at least Cuba-related art, to get punters in. I have also donated a couple of boxes of vintage cigars for it.
We gave the thing a name, "La Ceiba Cubana Project"
I just got the catalogue from Cuba today and the invite with the address. I can't upload the catalogue here, the file size is too big. I will get images up later today.
I am not asking for any money from anybody. Just if anyone on the forum is going to the festival they might want to come along or if they know anyone going, to let them know.
There will be a welcome cocktail and a cañonazo specially made for the event for the first 50 people.

I talk to people in Cuba every day. There are uncertainties, I'm well aware, but life goes on.

Time and Date: Tuesday 24^th February, 5pm-7pm

Venue: Coco Blue y La Zorra Pelua, Calle 14 entre 11 y 13, Vedado

Auction_Invite_2026.jpg

[Simon Bolivar]

I wish you & your charity well Andy, hope the amount raised goes well above our humble budgets. Sure there are many worthy causes in Cuba, hopefully this will stand out.

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[Ryan]

Catalogue available here

https://pinarica.com/la-ceiba-cubana-project/

[ha_banos]

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[Ryan]

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Thank you!

[BullittBoy]

Best for luck - sounds like a very worthy cause! Personally I love the 3 beard pictures!!

[Simon Bolivar]

I'd love to pay the opening price on the Sig VI but am sure they will go for a far higher, crazy price. Let's hope so!

[Ryan]

Habanos will be making a statement tomorrow regarding whether or not the Festival will be postponed.
Habanos wants to postpone, the government wants it to go ahead.
Apparently no Canadian flights until May when they will look at the situation again.
I'll be going anyway, as long as my flight takes off on Monday, as I have other things to do in Cuba.

[Simon Bolivar]

Reported by the BBC today the festival has been postponed because of the current situation & will occur at some time in the future.

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[Ryan]

An update!. With the Habanos festival cancelled, airlines cancelling routes and shortage of fuel, we had to rethink the auction. Rather than a live auction, as there are so few cigar people here in Havana, we put together a website today for a silent auction.
The website is up for the silent auction. You'd almost think I worked on auction websites before. The pages view better on Laptop/Desktop. I haven’t wrangled the CSS for mobile fully yet. But the site was born yesterday.

https://artcharityauction.com/

Any and all bids greatly appreciated. 100% of the proceeds will be going to the schools in that community. It's close to my heart. Allowing kids an education, with reliable light, power and safe food.

For anyone in Havana there will be a viewing of the art, meeting the artists, a cigar and a cocktail next Tuesday 24th, 5 pm to 7 pm, with a chat about the current art scene in Cuba. Free to all.

The venue is Bar Coco Blue y La Zorra Pelua (Jeff Art Plus Gallery shares the location). Calle 14 between 11 and 13, Vedado, Havana. Not far from Fabrica de Arte.
When is the last time you smoked a cigar in an art gallery?

There will be a surprise live lot on the day.

We can ship the art to anywhere in the world. We’ll get it to Miami and then post.

The cigars will ship from Ireland in mid-March.

Thank you. I hope there's an art piece, or box of cigars you might like!