JOSH SWARTZLANDER / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, May 3, 2006 7:00 pm
Lincoln’s second community art project, Star Art, brought in nearly $250,000 at a live and silent auction attended by almost 2,000 people last week at the Pershing Center.
“It was really just fantastic,” said Tari Hendrickson Sweeney, director of development for the Lincoln YWCA. “Our reception by the whole community was overwhelmingly positive. We feel supported.”
Proceeds from the art project benefitted the YWCA and contributing artists. The 69 main star pieces had been on display across the city for the past few months.
Three years ago, Lincoln’s first community art project, Tour de Lincoln, which featured bicycle sculptures, raked in more than $430,000 at auction.
Star Art organizers said they weren’t disappointed the star project didn’t make as much money.
“Every public art project is different,” Hendrickson Sweeney said. “There are a lot of intangible benefits we think are important.”
Those benefits included raising awareness about the YWCA as well as supporting community art in Lincoln.
Two Star Art projects went for $3,500, the highest bids at Friday’s live auction: “Wish Upon a Star,” by Sue Gardner Fenster, a sculpture of a bench with a star-shaped backrest; and “Simple Europe,” by Charles Muff, a two-dimensional oil portrait of the Star of David.
Bidding on the 69 main projects and three models ranged from $250 to $3,500, Hendrickson Sweeney said.
She said the most positive encouragement the Star Art project received was about the diversity of its pieces. Unlike Tour de Lincoln, Star Art could be any size, any medium. The projects are made of metal, stone, glass, papier mache, wood and fabric.
Also at Friday’s art auction, sister and brother Rebekah and Carson Laybourn won iPod Shuffles in a drawing. And Clint Burge won the Star Car, a 1966 Dodge Dart decorated by the Lincoln Public Schools Arts and Humanities Focus Program. Art created by students across the district was displayed at Pershing alongside the main pieces.
“We are grateful that the Lincoln community engaged on so many different levels and that our message of fairness, diversity and positive growth is now understood by our neighbors,” YWCA Executive Director Susan Scott said.
Said Hendrickson Sweeney: “We’re being encouraged to do another one.”
Reach Josh Swartzlander at 473-7120 or jswartzlander@journalstar.com.