Festival International de Louisiana has a Special Exhibits Committee. We didn’t know that. FIL’s Special Exhibits Committee is come up with an enterprising way of raising funds for Lafayette’s favorite festival — don’t be cranky Acadiens, we love you, too!. It’s called Evaluation Day, a fundraiser that allows patrons to bring up to three objects — art, furniture, manuscripts — to the Petroleum Club on Saturday to be appraised by qualified professional appraisers from Neal Auction Company, an internationally recognized fine art and antique auction gallery in New Orleans.

Evaluation Day will be held from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday at Petroleum Club in the Oil Center. (Check-in begins at 10:30).

Objects to be evaluated include paintings, drawings and prints (excluding Asian), photography, sculpture, furniture, decorative objects (excluding American Indian and Pre-Columbian), books, maps, manuscripts, scientific instruments, lighting, clocks, pottery, porcelain and silver. (Caveat: don’t bring for appraisal clothing, coins, comic books, dolls, electronics, jewelry, musical instruments, netsuke or inro, sports memorabilia, stamps, toys or weapons.)

To allow enough time for the appraisals, only 100 tickets are being sold for this event and a handful remain. A ticket will run you $50 and can be purchased by clicking here.