ALLENTOWN, PA - The Baum School of Art is back with its annual auction of works created in and around Allentown. But instead of being held for one night only, this year’s auction is extending over the course of a week.
"I want to encourage you this year in our new virtual auction to not let those pieces get away," says Baum School Board of Trustees VP, Shelbi Stoneback, "If you love it, bid on it, bid high. The proceeds from the fundraiser will help the Baum School bring more programming to our community and now more than ever we need your support."
The coronavirus pandemic forced organizers to cancel the in-person event in May and instead push the auction online. Now there are only a few hours left for art lovers to take home beautifully crafted pieces through the Allentown school’s 35th annual auction.
"It’s usually quite a fun night. We usually have an open bar, and there’s drinks and food and art and fun and that is the big event that we are missing this year, at least the in person part of it," Baum School Executive Director, Shannon Fugate tells PBS39, "But to have it online and virtual is another way to do it and we are finding it to be a really interesting tool to use the online platform so that we can continue to raise funds and sell artwork to benefit not only the Baum school but artists in our community."
With a variety of works created by regional and local artists, alongside faculty members’ creations up for auction online, Executive Director Shannon Fugate says the change might actually benefit the annual event and attract even more interested bidders.
"What we’ve noticed with our online platform is that we’re getting lots and lots of new bidders so people are joining and bidding and collecting work. I think I counted seven different states so people are getting the message," Fugate tells PBS39 reporter, K.C. Lopez, "We did a lot of social media promotion and we’re getting out of town audience members, new collectors locally and we’re getting some of our usual patrons and collectors that come to the auction and love to bid. The real silver lining in all of this is that we’re expanding our audiences in ways that we didn’t imagine before."
The Baum School’s virtual auction closes this Saturday, August 1st at 10PM.