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MassArt Auction moves forward online

Celina Colby
Celina Colby is an arts and travel reporter with a fondness for Russian novels.... VIEW BIO
MassArt Auction moves forward online
The annual MassArt Auction will be held virtually this year on April 25. PHOTO: CELINA COLBY

The Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s 31st annual MassArt Auction will press on amid the COVID-19 closings, adapted into an online-only format. The annual event raises money for student scholarships and other academic programs and has raised over $1 million for these programs each year in the last five years.

“More than 90% of the students that attend MassArt get some kind of financial aid assistance,” says Kathy Calnan, MassArt’s executive director of advancement, who is managing the auction. “Right now it’s more important than ever that we try to reach our fundraising goals, all of which go towards supporting student scholarships and academic programs here at the college.”

The event will now take two forms, a silent auction that is currently active and will remain open until 9 p.m. on April 25, and a live online auction that will begin at 8 p.m. on April 25. Both auctions are hosted on the online platform Bidsquare, but Calnan notes that bidders must register for the events separately to participate. Bidders can view the live auction items now to get a sense of the merchandise.

When art pieces sell, the money is split between the artist and the college’s scholarship programs. As a result, the auction also serves to promote artists’ work during a challenging time for sales. “Since so many artists are struggling and galleries are shut down, moving ahead with the auction on a virtual platform allows them to gain exposure and potentially money if their piece sells,” says Calnan.

This year, the auction has a few firsts that go beyond the new online structure.

MassArt photography student Tavon Taylor ’20 has become the first student ever to have a piece in the live auction. He’s also one of a just a handful of artists in the whole event to have multiple pieces up for sale.

Typically, MassArt chooses a select few student works to include in the silent auction, but Taylor’s probing and intimate portraits of black subjects are so exemplary he was selected to break new auction ground. Calnan says, “His photos are stunningly beautiful and he himself is an amazing young man, we’re proud to feature his work this year.”

This year MassArt also introduces wearable art jewelry into the live auction, another first. With the aid of Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge they sourced close to two dozen pieces to bring this new medium into the event.

Though the pound of the auction gavel will be missing this year, the community of art lovers coming together to support MassArt students will live on.

“Art makes the world a more beautiful place and art is what brings people together,” says Calnan. “What I’ve really been struck by during this pandemic is that people are looking for ways to connect with others, and so many of the ways they’ve been doing that is through the arts.”