UA Arty Party April 16 to Benefit Department of Art

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Silent and live art auctions, an exhibition of nationally known contemporary artist Vernon Fisher, dinner, and a special tribute to Mrs. Farley Moody Galbraith of Anniston will highlight The Arty Party Saturday, April 16 at The University of Alabama. The event will begin at 6 p.m. at Woods Hall on the UA campus.

The Arty Party, now in its second year, annually showcases and raises funds for the fine and performing arts at UA. This year it will highlight the department of art and the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art. Funds raised will benefit a student-led renovation of the UA Student Gallery of Art and support scholarships in the fine and performing arts.

Individual tickets may be purchased for $100. Other opportunities for participation include benefactor for $2,500, sponsor for $1,000 and patron for $150. Tickets may be purchased by phoning 1-800-365-2302 or 205/348-8663. Patrons, table sponsors and event benefactors receive special recognition at the event.

The UA College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Board sponsors the Arty Party. Business sponsors for this year’s event include Davis/Denny Advertising and EBSCO Media, both of Birmingham, and Publix Supermarkets Inc.

The work of well-known local and regional artists as well as that of UA art faculty, students and alumni will be featured at a cocktail-hour silent auction and a live auction held at dinner.

Area artists featured in the auctions will include Anne Bruno, Ben Burford, William Christenberry, Nelda Deloach, Basil Ede, Frank Fleming, Eugenia Foster, John Hyche, Julie Jamison, Martha Kavanaugh, Jack Leigh, Charlie Lucas, C.K. Lui, Susan McCollough, Miriam McClung, Ann Monfore, Barbara Morgan, Fairfax Nabers, Margie Phelps, Nancy Price, Sandra Pride, Danny Rountree, Al Sella, Maureen Shotts, Richard Smith, Cassie Steele, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Toni Tully, Yvonne Wells, Evan Wilson, Margaret Wilson, Gail Windham, and Richard Zoellner.

Guests may also bid for an in-home catered dinner with wine for eight, an in-home wine tasting event for 10, and an “opening football season” dinner for eight with UA President Robert E. Witt and Mrs. Anne C. Witt at the President’s Mansion on Friday, Sept. 2, before the Alabama-Middle Tennessee football game in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

The evening will honor Galbraith, a major patron of the department of art’s Sarah Moody Gallery of Art for nearly 25 years. William Dooley, professor and chairman of the UA department of art, said the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art enjoys a strong reputation in the national art community because of the longstanding interest and patronage of Farley Moody Galbraith.

“The Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Exhibitions Fund has made it possible for the gallery to bring many of the nation’s most respected artists and emerging artists to Alabama for studio visits and lectures,” Dooley said. “For decades, she has recognized that a strong art gallery at The University of Alabama provides an important opening to contemporary culture and a valuable venue for artistic development.”

Galbraith is the daughter of the gallery’s namesake Sarah McCorkle Moody, who also vigorously supported the arts during her lifetime. She is the mother of Locke Galbraith and Farley Moody Galbraith II whose namesake purchase fund provides acquisition funding to the gallery’s permanent collection.

The Arty Party is being held in conjunction with the opening of the 2005 Farley Moody Galbraith Endowed Exhibition “Notes for a New Novel,” April 15-June 15 by internationally recognized artist Vernon Fisher. It features 11 works of the Texas-based artist who employs traditional painting, pigment on canvas, and adds other components to his works. Fisher is known for utilizing cultural resources that thread together art and literature, nautical and strategic sciences, film and visual culture.

His work is represented in public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Houston Museum of Fine Arts and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The auctioneer for the event will be Granger, Thagard and Associates of Birmingham. The event will be hosted by Dr. Robert Olin, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and his wife Mrs. Lin Olin. They will be joined by President Robert E. Witt and Mrs. Anne C. Witt.

The event is organized by the College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Board’s Fine Arts Committee, chaired by Barbara Stone of Birmingham. Co-chairs are Milla Green and Stella Moore of Tuscaloosa.