The North Carolina Museum of Art is gearing up for its second annual art auction, featuring submissions from around the state. Whether from professional artists or interested amateurs, the auction offers a chance for citizens to be recognized for their artistic talents.
Jennifer Hicks, the special events director for the museum, said the event first grew out of the museum’s desire to create something new.
“It was a time when the museum had just reopened our old building,” Hicks said. “We were looking for some new program to open the museum to more local artists. [The art auction] was something mutually beneficial. It’s a chance to showcase a lot of great work, while also helping to keep the permanent collection free to the public.”
The event quickly became successful, inspiring the museum to create a yearly art auction. So far, this year’s event has seen a considerable amount of growth from the last, with more submissions coming in early.
Hicks said the first event was a learning experience for the museum.
“We were finding out what our audience was,” Hicks said. “We have a better idea of where to look this year.”
Last year’s auction provided a wide variety of submissions, with all age groups represented alongside notable members of the art community. This year, the museum feels it has had a better grasp on which groups to reach out to.
While the auction itself isn’t until April 14, the museum hopes to get citizens excited for the art several times in the next couple of months. All the submissions will be available to view online March 15, with links to the artists’ websites when available. A live showcase of the work will take place at the museum March 30.
Furthermore, the museum is reaching out to the community to help judge the merits of the works that will be bid on.
“We’ve set it up as a juried submission of the work,” Hicks said. “The jury is not formed from the museum, but from the community. This year, we’ve got the potter Marc Huit , as well as the director of the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh.”
The judges have been chosen based on their artistic eyes, but the museum has made sure all entrants will get a fair shot.
“We’ve gotten a very prestigious board, but they don’t know if a work is submitted by a professional artist or an amateur,” Hicks said.
The art auction acts as part of the museum’s desire to become more involved with North Carolina’s artistic community. The museum is also working to develop an artistic liaison group to reach out to artists around the state.
“We definitely hope that the liaison group will get more involvement overall with the community,” Hicks said. “We want to be showcasing what other artists are doing.”
In a similar vein, the museum hopes the art auction event will continue to grow in the coming years, providing a gathering place for local artists to show off their work to the community.
”It’s the sort of thing that the whole community can embrace,” Hicks said. “We put the work up in a local exhibition. It’s something that can be seen, and it’s a great showcase for the work.”
