Do you like art? What about food and drinks? And are you a regular person who might not be able to afford to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on wall hangings and conversational mantel pieces?
Well, if you answered yes to any or all of the above, then the Kimball Jenkins School of Art’s Paint the Town fundraiser this week is right up your alley.
The art auction, entering its fourth year, is the main fundraising event of the year for the Concord art school. It’s also a chance for members of the community – and art lovers from all over the country – to snag some cool pieces at an affordable price while helping the school pay the bills. Money raised from the auction will go toward running the school and scholarships for students, said Ryan Linehan, director of operations and education at Kimball Jenkins.
“Last year we raised about $40,000, and we hope to best that this year,” he said. “We’re hoping to do $45,000.”
Linehan said fundraising is a big part of what they do at Kimball Jenkins. Students pay tuition to attend classes, but that doesn’t cover all of the costs. Raising money through the annual auction “allows us to give out scholarships and nobody is turned away,” Linehan said.
All of the art to be auctioned off has been donated by local artists, some of them nationally known. The creators don’t see a dime from the sales, “but they’re doing it to support the school,” Linehan said.
This year’s auction will feature many watercolor and acrylic paintings and some ceramic work as well. Most pieces will sell for between $50 and $200, Linehan said, though there will be a couple of items that should fetch a few thousand dollars.
If you don’t want to wait for the live auction, which is Sept. 25, you can see all of the items and bid on them online at biddingforgood.com (a link to the auction can also be found on Kimball Jenkins’s website, kimballjenkins.com) – and you can start right now cause the bidding has already begun. It’s kind of like eBay, only instead of bidding on used pants and generic car parts being sold out of some sketchy warehouse in Detroit, you’re trying to land one-of-a-kind works of art created right here in the capital city. So really, it’s way better than eBay.
Linehan said the online side of it has been successful in the past, with people as far away as San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami making purchases last year.
But if you do attend the event at the Kimball Jenkins Estate in person, you’ll find that it’s more than just a silent auction.
“It’s not just our auction,” Linehan said, “it’s a fun night out. There will probably be 10 different food vendors, beer and wine – a fun night out for a pretty affordable price.”
That price is $30, and it covers admission plus the food and drink. That puts it about in the range of lunch and drinks for two at most restaurants, so it shouldn’t break the bank.
Besides the refreshments, there will also be a painter on site working on a piece, so everyone can see an artistic master hard at work. Joe Bladja of Manchester will be that master, and the painting will be auctioned off as soon as it’s finished. So it’s kind of like a farm-to-table kind of deal, only with an artist painting something for your wall instead of a farmer growing something for your dinner.
And if you already have more paintings and decorative pieces of pottery than you know what to do with, you might be more interested in bidding on a tour – for you and seven friends – of Mary McGowan’s house and private collection. She’s the woman who founded McGowan Fine Art, and she’s kind of a big deal in the art scene, especially in Concord.
“There are a lot of people who wanted that tour (last year),” Linehan said. “It’s just something you don’t get to ever do.”
Well, technically, eight people will get to do it for one evening this year, but you get the idea.
If you want to go, you can get tickets at biddingforgood.com – Kimball Jenkins also has a link on its website on the event page for Paint the Town – or at the door of the Kimball Jenkins Estate. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and again, bids can be placed online at any time up until Sept. 24, at which point the online auction will close.
Linehan said he’d love to see 200 people show up, so gather up a nice group and make him proud!