Ever met a bartender who made $900 in tips in two hours? Meet Priyanka Mathew – she accomplished this – and all in the name of philanthropic imbibitions! Mathew, who is in reality Director of the Aicon Gallery in Manhattan, had probably never thought she’d be mixing drinks and looking for tips – until she went to Pakistan.
“I had wanted to travel to Pakistan for as long as I can remember,” she says. “ I have, in my recent professional life, developed another connection with the country – one with its defiant visual arts community. The country has for a decade now, under the radar, been producing some of the most innovative art from the subcontinent.”
Her trip to Lahore took her to studios and universities, and she saw the art environment firsthand: “The art institutions in Pakistan are ones that are truly non-discriminating where students from the remotest parts of the country from all faiths and walks of life come and study together, sometimes from the poorest circumstances.”
She also met noted curator Salima Hashmi and spent time with her at Rohitas, a gallery started by her to support art that was ‘commercially impractical’. On that long evening when four bombs went off in Lahore, Hashmi told her of a young student struggling to finish his education at the Beacon House National University. He was a semester away from graduating – but needed $900 for his fees.
“For a lot of us living and working here in New York, that isn’t a game-changing amount of money,” says Mathew. “So I offered to help, in a small way to give back to a community that shared so much with me.”
On her return to New York, Mathew did not forget Imran Z, the student struggling to pay his fees. She decided to raise awareness and funds through an unusual fundraising source – the bartender’s tip jar. “It wasn’t a lot of money and I could have just paid it myself, but I wanted to mix my passion and raise some awareness around the need, so I thought this would be the least intrusive way to get all of my friends together.”
Dan Warren, the owner of the sports bar West 3rd Common, let her keep all her tips for the evening and she requested the invitees to leave generous tips. Thanks to a solid cadre of friends, the bar was packed. In fact social networking played a part too – many had forwarded her invite for ‘philanthropic imbibitions’ to others and the whole thing went quite viral on Facebook. In the course of a few hours her tip jar was stuffed with $833, including a sizable check. She tipped herself some bucks too to bring the grand total to the magic number: $900.
People tipped anonymously so she got anywhere from couple of dollars to hundreds put in her jar. She says, “I wanted people to give what they could, not a fixed amount, and it helps to be drunk a little – people get generous, so I thought this was a great idea to just have a fun evening, and mix up some of these things!”
How difficult was it for an arts director to turn savvy bartender? “It actually wasn’t as hard as I thought,” she says. “I learnt to mix a couple of drinks like lychee martini and mint julep and straight simple mixed drinks. Because they were all my friends, they were mostly kind and it was easy, but once in a while, when somebody wanted to tease me – they threw me a twister. I’d just laugh and say ‘pass!’ The whole night was amusing, every single pour was fun.”
In the old days maharajas grandly supported artists and in her own quirky way, Mathew turned patron too to a young art student who will now be able to finish his art education.
“I am particularly passionate about contemporary art that’s happening in Pakistan, not only because the work is so sophisticated and thoughtful, but because these are the renegade folks in that country fighting the influences that are taking the country down a spiraling path.”
She adds: “We have to support these voices. It is not easy choosing the life of an artist, and becomes exponentially true in a place like Pakistan. It’s a brave choice to make; most times because they really don’t have a choice, they have to follow their talent.”
Mathew says she might turn bartender again for the sake of art: “Ultimately my effort was to support his art, to allow Imran Z to finish up his studies and hopefully go on to become a great artist.”
