Going going gone
The Utah State Art Guild hosted their annual Halloween Art auction Friday, Oct. 27, in the Fine Arts Building.
The students in the Art Guild put on this art auction each year to raise money for the group’s activities through out the year. Members of the Art Guild transformed the painting studio into a spooky labyrinth to set the Halloween mood for would-be buyers.
The guild and the professors hailed Friday’s auction a success. Painting and drawing professor Christopher Terry as well as the evening’s auctioneer called the event exciting and fun as they raised several hundred dollars for the guild.
“The main goal of the auction is to raise money to support the guild and also for the art department to get together and have some fun and we have done that here tonight,” Terry said.
The Halloween sale lured art students, non-art students and people for the community alike with checkbooks and wallets open as they put up their bids at the chance to get professional art for potential bargains. Art freshman Jeff Lloyd and biology freshman Matt Parsons were two students hoping to get something fun from the sale.
The auction has been a long tradition for students and staff of the USU art department. Established in the late ’80s, the auction has been a successful fundraiser for the guild.
Junior art major and Art Guild club president Ann Snell was in charge of this year’s auction and had the task of encouraging students and staff to donate art and other miscellaneous items to be auctioned.
Around 45 to 50 people came to place bids on the pieces. Terry, who has been the auctioneer since 1989, started off the evening’s sale with a pair of rollerblade wheels and bearings that sold for 40 cents.
Prices ranged from 25 cents for things like a broken computer scanner, cans of deicer and picture frames up to $130 for original art work. Even a station wagon was auctioned off to a student bidder for $90.
Everything sold at the auction was donated by students and professors like Department Head Jon Neely, who donated some of his ceramic art. Some of Terry’s paintings and print work by Snell all brought in top bids.
As well as selling art, a Halloween costume contest also attracts bidders. Many students came to the auction dressed to win the contest. Each year the contest winner is selected from the audience by a secret guest judge and gets their name engraved on a trophy.
Marie Aitken, a senior majoring in interior, design came to the auction dressed as Elizabeth Swan from the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Other costumes included pirates, witches, a man dressed as a pregnant woman and the winner of the contest was dressed as a runner from the ’80s.
The Art Guild is a club on campus for people who enjoy art. The money raised by the auction is used to bring in guest artists to speak to the guild, as well as trips they take to other art museums.
Snell said a portion of the money they raise will be put into a fund that will be used to renovate the Tippetts Art Gallery.
dwkoecher@cc.usu.edu