The ArtsBank Auction offers our community an event that is an entertaining way to finish out this cold winter month. 

The doors at Orchard Hall will open at 6:30 this evening and excellent hors d’oeuvres will be ready for guests to enjoy. Music will accompany a time for mingling with friends and looking at the art offerings. The grand auction will begin at 8 p.m.

ArtsBank has paid local artists to teach art lessons in Randolph County Public Schools for thirty years. These working artists go into classrooms for six weeks to teach elementary students how to paint or do other types of artistic self-expression. Without community support for ArtsBank most children in Randolph County would not have had art instruction until secondary school.

The ArtsBank Auction has long been a place to see and buy examples of the finest art in our region. Bill McWhorter’s landscapes with elegant clouds wafting across his canvas were among the most memorable oil painting images from the early ArtsBank events. Jesse Reed and Ruth Blackwell Rogers both offered watercolor paintings that still hang in our house.

Joe Rieffenberger’s wooden bears and Billy Carr’s marvelous soups were annual auction items that earned many hours of art instruction. It may be true that it would be better if Randolph County Public Schools could offer art classes for all elementary students, but until our community realizes that school levies are necessary for excellent public education, ArtsBank is trying to fill the art instructional gaps.

One reason opportunities for self-expression are so desperately needed is because poor children living in our depressed region experience unusual suffering. Too many young families are in poverty, and the foster care system is not working well in West Virginia. Families are struggling to provide food and shelter, and single parents cannot get jobs when they do not have money for childcare.

We cannot change all these issues by coming to the ArtsBank Auction, but we can help to ensure that art education will be available for schoolchildren. Elementary students will see young adults in our community who are working as artists. 

Young adults like Kylie Proudfoot Payne have the digital skills to sell their products online, and Kylie also helps older artists to use technology more effectively for advertising. 

Nevada Tribble is a young local sculptor who uses a sewing machine on her bike to create fabric art, and her sculptures are done with a wide variety of other materials as well. Both of these two artists are featured in the Tygart Hotel.

When we support art education, we are helping create a brighter future for the next generation.