Last night 300 members of Toronto’s PR, advertising and marketing community came together at the Steam Whistle Brewery to participate in an industry art auction, with money raised going to Sketch, a Toronto art studio devoted to street youth.

Each of the 20 pieces up for auction was created by one of Toronto’s most recognizable and esteemed industry leaders, including High Road’s own CEO, Mia Wedgbury, who did a Twitter-view on the topic a few weeks ago.

Most of the participants—including Mia—aren’t visual artists, so creating these pieces was a daunting task for people who tend to face every day with a sense of fearlessness. And on top of displaying their work, each artist had to make an Oscar-style speech about their piece in under 60 seconds, in an effort to increase bids.

The art ranged from vacation photography to sketches to watercolours to collages, each based on the theme “Eureka!”. Mia’s piece was titled “Eureka! Reinvented”, and combined her passion for snowboarding with her passion for her career.

By the end of the night, $20,000 was raised for the charity. It was an interesting exercise with fascinating results – kudos to Trina Boos of adLounge for coming up with the idea! Check out what others had to say on the live Twitter feed by searching with the hastag #artunexpected.