Art is for everyone.
That's what the Blanden Memorial Art Museum wants the public to know.
To underscore that philosophy, the museum will sell 360 pieces in an Art is For Everyone Sale and Auction Oct. 10 at the new Bioscience and Health Sciences Building on the Iowa Central Community College campus.
The sale and auction will begin with a 6 p.m. viewing. At 7 p.m., auctioneer Keith Dencklau will commence with the live auction. About 300 works will be sold in silent auction. The event is free and open to the public.
"Each of the pieces that are set out for silent auction will have a minimum bid price," said Deb Johnson, a member of the Blanden Memorial Art Museum board who is also a member of the auction committee. "So you start there. And then we will have a Buy-It-Now price."
There will be no reserve on the live auction pieces, Johnson said. "Everything will go. Everything goes that night."
The work being sold has either been de-accessioned - that is, formally removed from the Blanden permanent collection through the board's action - or is orphan art. Orphan art is work that was given to the Blanden, but was never formally included into the museum's collection through accession.
It ranges from Asian vessels from the closet of the Catherine Deardorf estate to things that were, said Johnson, "just dropped at the door."
"We're aiming to raise as much as we can to preserve and conserve what we have - and to have the people in the community have a piece of art that they love," she said.
All of the work being sold is collectible, but it has no market in the art world, according to Blanden Director Maggie Skove.
"The artwork has no auction record value. The artist has no auction record value," Skove explained.
Using a database designed specifically for art museums, Skove said she researched the works thoroughly.
"I looked up all 360 pieces, which took forever. The artist does not have an auction record," she said. "I want to be clear that, right now, let's say there are 6 billion people in the United States. Of that six billion people, at least 1 billion people write on their IRS tax form application they are an artist. And they are good. We have good artists in this town. But that doesn't mean their work has a market."
She added, "It does mean people will privately buy it, but it does not go through a gallery or an institution that would sell it. So a lot of these pieces are very nice, but they don't have a value."
A document explaining the museum's de-accessioning process is available at its east door now and will be available to the public at the auction.
Founded in 1930 through the efforts of former Fort Dodge Mayor Charles Blanden, the museum was built as a memorial to his late wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Blanden had been a teacher in Fort Dodge schools.
The Blanden officially opened in 1932.
Owned by the city, the museum is today overseen by two separate boards - the Blanden Memorial Art Museum Board and the Blanden Charitable Foundation Board, both of which now own portions of the permanent collection. The boards jointly agreed to the sale during a July 2006 meeting.
The permanent collection is comprised of work by some of the most famous names in international art: Kandinsky, Klee, Calder, Chagall, Miro and Prendergast.
They are not for sale.
It is the many works by lesser-known artists that will be sold in October because, frankly, the Blanden has run out of storage space. That is a paramount reason for the sale, according to Skove.
To illustrate her point, she opened the door to the Blanden's only climate-controlled vault, which has roughly 25 by 30 feet of floor space. It's full. Two other storage spaces, which are not climate-controlled, are also packed.
"Every box is full," she said.
Also, right now, every gallery in the museum is hung with work from the Blanden's permanent collection.
"So, those are the reasons," said Skove, closing a door on giant crates of art. "There's no space. We don't have the money to conserve. They're not worth conserving. The alternative of building a new vault area is simply out of the question."
The work for sale ranges from early 20th-century marble statues to original oils to photos and monoprints in archival mountings.
Most of the latter aren't framed. Skove said archivally framing the prints is beyond the Blanden's capabilities.
"We've spent about $70,000 in the last two years framing works of art that have been just pieces of paper in a metal cabinet," she said to underscore her point.
The Oct. 10 sale is the first sale in the Blanden's lifetime, and it is expected to be the only one, according to Skove.
The money will fund future Blanden efforts.
"Proceeds will go into a special restricted account that will be used for conservation and preservation of works currently at the Blanden that need restoration," said Johnson. Any money left will likely go toward future acquisition of art by the BCF for the museum's permanent collection.
Skove said that from now on, only the BCF will acquire art.
"I don't want anyone thinking the city will acquire works of art, because they're not," she said. "The art that is owned by the city was given to the city-owned museum before the creation of the Blanden Charitable Foundation.
"There's a lot of work after 1980 that was given to the BCF," she said. "We always give people a choice. But before that, it was always given to the city."
The Blanden still accepts donations of art. Both Skove and Johnson emphasized that point. But from now on, those gifts must meet established collection criteria because the plan is to never hold an auction and sale like this one again.
"Someone could give us a Picasso," said Skove, "and if it had the restriction that it always had to be up, we'd say we're sure sorry, but ..."
Contact Jane Curtis at (515) 573-2141 or editor@messengernews.net
