A ‘Silent Night’ Auction

It’s Tuesday afternoon, and the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Art gallery is going through a transition. Ladders and construction tools are scattered on the floor of the west gallery, while the first pieces of art are mounted on the center gallery walls.

Staff members are gearing up for one of the gallery’s biggest fundraising events this semester, “Silent Night: Holiday Art Sale and Auction”  at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

The auction will take place in conjunction with the School of Fine Arts Student Awards Ceremony at 5:30 p.m., as well as the 6:30 p.m. reception for the school’s “BFA Thesis Exhibition.” The exhibition, which features work by students in three different studio art departments, will be on display from noon to 4 p.m. through Saturday.

“All of these events, since I’ve been here, have been on the same night,” said Megan Abajian, public relations director for the SoFA Gallery. “It’s the end of the semester, there is lots of activity. The night really, I think, gets everyone into the Christmas spirit.”

Abajian said the auction will feature more than 130 pieces of art, donated by either students in the school’s metalsmithing and jewelry design department, or created by faculty and community artists.

It will raise money for visual art programming, the metalsmithing and jewelry guild and scholarships administered by the Friends of Art organization.  
        
“We’ve had this auction for the last seven or eight years,” said Tom Rhea, executive director of the Friends of Art. “It really helps with programming. Essentially, all of our money goes back to the SoFA Gallery in one way or another.”

Perspective bidders can buy a piece at any point during the preview of the art sale, Rhea said.

“I price the pieces,” Rhea said. “The ‘buy now’ price is about double the starting bid price. There will be a lot of valuable pieces for this auction.”

Because so many different events are taking place at the gallery on Friday evening, Abajian said all of the groups involved should benefit.

“Everything is going on at the same time,” Said Randy Long, head of the school’s jewelry and metalsmith department. “It’s an exciting night.”

Senior Joshua Craig is one of three students featured in the “BFA Thesis Exhibition.” His project, titled “Hindsight,” is made up of seven enameled bowls.

“I developed seven bowls about looking back on my life,” Craig said. “They are about moments in life I wish I had done differently.”

Along with Craig, students from the graphic design and photography departments, share the east gallery to present their work for this semester’s final exhibition.

“I’ve been thinking about this thesis exhibition for a while,” Craig said. “I’m very excited.”