Pitt-Bradford will hold a gala art auction to benefit the Pitt-Bradford Arts Endowment at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19 in  Blaisdell Hall  at the university.

            In addition to a live and silent auction, Pitt-Bradford’s Auction for the Arts will feature John Levey, Pitt-Bradford’s new assistant professor of music, playing the grand piano, while  Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho, visiting assistant professor of art, creates a piece of artwork to be auctioned off that evening.

            “It will be an upscale, lovely event,” said Gail McDonough, chairwoman of the auction fundraiser committee.

            A silent auction will take place during the cocktail party portion of the evening, after which guests will adjourn to the Bromeley Family Theater for the live auction.

Tickets for the auction are $65 and include cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. They may be purchased by calling Patty Colosimo, assistant director of arts programming, at 814-362-5155. There are a limited number of tickets. They will not be available the night of the auction.

            A highlight of the auction will be a rare Calvin and Hobbes lithograph signed by the comic strip’s creator, Bill Watterson.

            The full-color, signed and numbered lithograph was one of only 1,000 created to thank newspapers that continued to run the popular strip during a nine-month sabbatical Watterson took in 1992. Accompanying the lithograph is a signed letter from Universal Press Syndicate, which distributed the strip.

            The 12½-inch by 17½-inch picture shows Calvin and Hobbes in a red wagon careening down a hill and headed into a creek.

            “It’s a sought-after and desired item among Calvin and Hobbes collectors,” McDonough said. “It was a gift from John H. Satterwhite, publisher of The Bradford Era, to our arts auction to sell for the purpose of gleaning funds for the Arts Endowment. We are very grateful for his generosity.”

            Other auction items include a package of services from the Bradford Center for Aesthetics and Dr. Kenneth B. Goodrich; an overnight package from Glendorn that includes breakfast; and premium tickets to the Nov. 29 Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins football game with access to the Jim Kelly Club at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The tickets were donated by Bradford Travel.

            There will also be a number of hand-crafted items up for auction, including two Adirondack chairs with footstools made and donated by Marcia Bower and a cherry-wood toy chest inlaid with walnut and maple teddy bears and drawers.

            Zippo Manufacturing Co., which is also a corporate sponsor, is donating a one-of-a-kind lighter set featuring different buildings on campus, and W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. is donating a set of bone-handled steak knives.

            At the end of the evening, guests will also be able to bid on a collage-constructed painting, “Imprinting the Leaves,” which will be created by Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho throughout the event.

            Geiger-Ho said of her work, “By creating a work based on the breathtaking beauty of the natural world, I am hoping to entice the viewing audience into wanting to further explore and appreciate the delicate design and grandeur of the wild forested lands that we are so fortunate to be surrounded with.”

            In “Imprinting the Leaves,” Geiger-Ho will use acrylic paint and gels of various strengths, applied in layers over shaped Japanese paper that are shaped by soldered wires and other materials placed on the canvas-like backing of the work. In places where the gel is not heavily colored, the leaves and other objects will become embedded beneath the skin of the polymerized paper and still be recognizable.

            “Trapped in their polymer matrix, the forest’s leaves and other elements will remain preserved forever,” she said.

            McDonough said, “It’s been outstanding what the community has contributed to this event. All of the auction items have been donated, and the generosity of the sponsors is overwhelming.”

            Thanks to corporate sponsors, all of the proceeds from the evening will go to the Arts Endowment Fund, which supports the university’s premier Prism Series, curriculum-based Spectrum Series and popular children’s series now in its second year, Kaleidescope.

            Corporate-level sponsors for the evening include Bradford Orthopedics, Manning & Napier Advisors Inc., Metz & Associates, Jeanie and John Satterwhite, Walmart and Zippo.

            Some packages will also be available for online bidding before the auction. Online bids will be accepted through 4 p.m. Sept. 16 at www.upb.pitt.edu/artauction.aspx.

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