31st Annual Lawrence Art Auction

Lawrence Arts Center Gallery Program Benefit

Benefit Art Auction a Success!

The Lawrence Arts Center raised over $150,000.00 at its 31st annual benefit art auction Saturday, April 9. Original works of art donated by over 130 artists were sold to the highest bidders, raising $105, 787.00, a total that means all works sold reached an average of 92% of the retail prices as listed by the artists. Among many outstanding moments in the evening, bidders enthusiastically raised their bids for both lithographs and paintings by featured artist Roger Shimomura. Executive Director Susan Tate said, “In the last year, we have expanded our Exhibition spaces, increased the number of artists whose work we have been able to show, and added to the types of related programming we offer. The tremendous response to our 2011 auction demonstrates the support of the community for the role the Arts Center is playing in contemporary exhibitions. We count on the leadership of our Featured Artist, and Roger Shimomura has been an amazing advocate and part of our team.”

In addition, donors gave $23,000 in a “Raise the Paddle” event to more than match a $20,000.00 challenge from the W.T. Kemper Foundation to fund acoustical and digital projection improvements to four exhibition spaces. Exhibitions Director Ben Ahlvers credits the generosity of artists and art buyers who recognize the importance the Arts Center exhibition spaces play in the region. Over 600 people attended the annual event which supports the Lawrence Arts Center ’s curated exhibitions programming.

Mark your calendars for the 32nd Annual Benefit Art Auction! Saturday, April 14, 2012.

  • 31st Annual Lawrence Art Auction

  • Lawrence Arts Center Gallery Program Benefit

  • April 9, 2011 Doors open at 5:30. Live Auction begins at 7:30

  • Art from over 150 artists on view now in the galleries

  • 2011 Featured Artist: Roger Shimomura

  • Major sponsors: The EyeDoctors Optometrists
    Dr. Harvat, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Hamilton




This exhibition will feature original art from approximately 150 artists. Artwork generously donated by artists represents a diverse spectrum of forms and mediums, including paintings, sculpture, photography, ceramics, jewelry and prints. The art auction committee is working hard at ensuring this event is teeming with quality art and that the event is truly a great experience for all involved. You can expect fresh changes to many aspects of this event. Ben Ahlvers, Exhibitions Director along with the Art Auction Committee are enthusiastic to bring this annual event to the community.

The Lawrence Arts Center is a non-profit arts agency that has served the Lawrence community for 35 years. The Exhibitions Program strives to provide the highest quality in local, national, regional, national and international visual art. Between the two gallery spaces, the program hosts 15-18 exhibits per year. This annual event serves as the gallery programs primary source of funding. Now, more than ever the arts need you to become an active participant.


Featured Artist: Roger Shimomura

Photo: Grant Haller

Roger Shimomura's paintings, prints, and theatre pieces address sociopolitical issues of Asian America and have often been inspired by diaries kept by his late immigrant grandmother for 56 years of her life. Shimomura received his B.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle, and his M.F.A. from Syracuse University, New York. He has had over 125 solo exhibitions of paintings and prints, as well as presented his experimental theater pieces at such venues as the Franklin Furnace, New York City, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He is the recipient of more than 30 grants, of which 4 are National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Painting and Performance Art. Shimomura has been a visiting artist and lectured on his work at more than 200 universities, art schools, and museums across the country. In 1999, the Seattle Urban League designated a scholarship in his name that has been awarded annually to a Seattle resident pursuing a career in art. In 2002, the College Art Association presented him with the “Artist Award for Most Distinguished Body of Work,” for his 4 year, 12-museum national tour of the painting exhibition, “An American Diary.” The following year, he delivered the keynote address at the 91st annual meeting of CAA in New York City. In 2006, he was accorded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the School of Arts & Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle. A past winner of the Kansas Governor’s Arts Award, in 2008, he was designated the first Kansas Master Artist and the same year was honored by the Asian American Arts Alliance, N.Y.C. as "Exceptional People in Fashion, Food & the Arts."

Shimomura began teaching in the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS in 1969. In the fall of 1990, Shimomura held an appointment as the Dayton Hudson Distinguished Visiting Professor at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. In 1994, he became the first Fine Arts faculty member in Kansas University’s history to be honored as a University Distinguished Professor. In 1998, he was the recipient of the Higuchi Research Award, the highest annual research honor awarded to a faculty member in Humanities and Social Sciences. In the fall of 2002, he received the Chancellor's Club Career Teaching Award for sustained excellence in teaching and dedication to students at KU. In 2004 he retired from teaching and started the Shimomura Faculty Research Support Fund, an endowment to foster faculty research in the Department of Art at KU.

Shimomura is in the permanent collections of over 80 museums nation wide. His personal papers and letters are being collected by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He is represented by Flomenhaft Gallery, New York City, Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, Eight Modern Gallery, Santa Fe and Byron C. Cohen Gallery, Kansas City.

Roger Shimomura Official Website



The Artists




Sponsors

2011 Lawrence Art Auction is sponsored by: The EyeDoctors Optometrists (Dr. Harvat, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Hamilton), Mainline Printing, Evan Williams Catering, Callahan Creek, and HyVee.





Dr. Harvat, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Hamilton