By Edgar Gonzalez, Staff Reporter
The Fine Arts Department will be hosting a silent auction for art made by students and staff of CNM as well as local artists.
On April 2 from 6p.m. to 8p.m., tickets at the door will be $10 and $5 for students at 1910 Broadway NE Albuquerque New Mexico 87102, said Andy Tibble faculty member in the school of adult and general education.
It is an event to raise money for a scholarship that they have created, the Ernest Garcia Emergent Artist scholarship, he said.
Ernest Garcia, who the scholarship was named after, was a founding member of their union and he also was the secretary of the union for many years, he said.
“It was very sad since he died within a year after his retirement,” he said.
The fundraiser raised the needed funds for the first scholarship that was offered so they decided to centralize the event and the scholarship under the name Ernest Garcia, Tibble said.
This is a silent auction, which means that people who decide to buy a piece that is available for bid will remain anonymous, he said.
“Most of the pieces in the gallery are of very good quality and I have even bought some of the pieces for myself, sometimes I cannot believe I am getting this level of art with only 20- 50 dollars,” he said.
There are many levels of art at different price ranges, some will go for $20 while others might go for hundreds of dollars depending on the quality of the piece and the interest of people on it, he said.
The types of art include but are not limited to drawings, paintings, and sculptures, he said.
They have several rooms depending on the type of art work and there is a room which will be filled with drawings which are very reasonably priced from five to twenty dollars, he said.
For the drawings there is no silent auction, it works as a first come first serve situation, he said.
The more money collected the more the scholarship will be worth, he said.
There is a lot of money collected at the end of the night, in fact the last time the scholarship raised well over five thousand dollars, he said.
All the work will be donated by artists which have been found through connections from the fine arts department, he said.
“The department is always looking for donations, for various kinds of art work from the event although they are very picky,” Tibble said.
They also donate pieces of their own work, he said.
Some students and ex-students donate their art works as well, he said.
There is a process for people who want their pieces to be auctioned off in the gallery, he said.
When they get pieces of art because of the scholarship there must be a tax form filled in for every single thing since it is a donation and it is maintained by the CNM foundation, he said.
There will also be an assortment of food, drinks and live entertainment for the people who show, he said