Exhibit, auction to benefit student art
An exhibit and silent auction that opens Nov. 2 in the Paseo Arts District will memorialize a beloved art educator and raise money for student art projects.
The exhibit will feature the work of Karen Kirkpatrick, who died in 2017. Money raised from the sale of pieces — contributed by patrons and at least 35 art teachers and their students — will provide supplies for school art programs.
“I called her Mother Kirkpatrick because she always looked out for all the other art teachers,” said Susan Cromer Yback, who was Kirkpatrick’s colleague for more than 30 years in the Putnam City school district.
Yback said Kirkpatrick chaired the statewide Youth Art Month for several years, then trained her so she could take over. In 1985, the National Arts Education Association honored the Oklahoma chapter with the National Youth Art Month award for its efforts to draw attention to arts education, obtain financial backing and get more arts programs into the schools.
“Oklahoma had never won it,” Yback said. “It was Karen’s dream to win it.”
Opening night for the exhibit and silent auction will be from 6 to 10 p.m. Nov. 2 at Paseo Gallery One, 2927 Paseo, during the First Friday Gallery Walk. Bidding will continue until 4 p.m. Nov. 17. Paseo Gallery One is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Twenty-five art educators and 10 retired teachers from 17 school districts across the state have contributed work for the auction, said Yback, a painter and potter who retired from Putnam City in 2011 and one of the artists at Paseo Gallery One, which is owned by John Robison.
Some of the auction pieces are studentteacher collaborations, Yback said.
Jim Barnett, who is lending pieces from his collection of Kirkpatrick’s work, said the exhibit will include her paintings, sketches, mixed media art, papiermache’ dolls and art made from found objects.
Oklahoma City art educators Susan Gabbard and Bob Curtis have donated some of their work for the auction, and art patrons Allan and Cheryl Harder contributed pieces from their collection, including alabaster sculptures collected by Dr. Joe Phillips, a Weatherford dentist who died in August.