COLLEGEVILLE, PA.- A special silent/live auction Friday, June 6, will cap several festive events this year supporting the planned expansion of The Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College . Billed as ‘the Berman Museum of Art(ist’s) Auction,’ the auction will feature works donated by artists who have exhibited at the Museum over the past 20 years, in addition to contributions by collectors and board members.
The 6:30 p.m. program in the Main Gallery will include cocktails and heavy hors d’oeuvres, and music by Mascaro-Newman duo. The public is welcome. Tickets are $50 per person. Please contact Suzanne Calvin at the Museum, 610-409-3500, to reserve a place.
Since its opening, the Museum has partnered with the Philadelphia Water Color Society, the Philadelphia/Tri-State Artists Equity, Woodturning Center , and other organizations, to present juried exhibitions that have given hundreds of artists a forum. Many of them asked how they could help support the museum expansion goals, which led to the auction.
The event will give the community the opportunity to bid for works of art by the talented artists who have exhibited at the Berman Museum in the past. All proceeds will benefit the expansion of the museum to house and make accessible the permanent collection, create educational space, and develop a formal outdoor sculpture garden to complement the permanent outdoor sculpture collection.
More than 20 artists have contributed their work to date, and others are expected to be included. Artists include Andrea M. Baldeck, David Brewster, William Campbell, Lee Cohen, Maureen Drdak, James Fuhrman, Mike Hale, Theodore Hallman Sr., Zhe Ziou Ziang, Debrah Jospe, Sally Grizzell Larson, Bill Mandel, Enid Mark, Helen Mirkil, Ilse Helfferich Munzinger, Ellen Priest, Robert Reichley, Doris Sams, Dorla Dean Silder, Constance Moore Simon, Susan Swinand, Susannah Hart Thomer, Steve Tobin and Barbara Zucker.
Previously this year, in support of the expansion effort, internationally renowned artist Françoise Gilot donated a number of portraits of historical artistic, political and literary leaders, including those which define her career.
In addition, celebrated sculptor George R. Anthonisen announced he would bequeath his entire collection of sculpture, frescoes, drawings and archival materials to the museum.
The museum opened in 1989 in the historic 1921 building that was formerly Alumni Memorial Library. Its permanent collection is home to many of the artists who generously donated their work for the auction. The Berman Museum of Art has become an educational and cultural resource since the late Philip and Muriel Berman, business leaders and philanthropists, sought a home for their extraordinary collections of contemporary sculpture, American paintings and works on paper and folk art, to join a collection of 18th and 19th Century American and European paintings which had been collected by the College. Today, the Museum houses more than 3,000 notable works of art and attracts 35,000 visitors annually.
