Painted Violins Hit Fundraising High Note

Painted Violins

One after another the fresh-from-the-box student violins were hand delivered to those who would transform them into works of art.

Having local artists paint inexpensive violins to be auctioned off to raise funds for various causes is a proven moneymaker. Dozens of these projects have been successfully conducted from Bellevue, Wash., to Virginia Beach.

Last spring, board members of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra were brainstorming ideas on how to culminate its Fanfare for the Future campaign to raise $3 million for its endowment.

“For a couple years now we have been undergoing a campaign to raise $3 million for the orchestra, and we are now in the closing stages,” said Bill H. Martin, executive director of the symphony. “We were looking for an event that would be special and help us celebrate the campaign, as well as allow us to do something new and different.

“Right now we’re at about 92 percent of our goal, and we’re very optimistic that we will make it. I’ll admit that the latter stages of the campaign have been the most challenging.

“We’re out trying to introduce ourselves to new folks and broaden our patron base. The painted violin project has been a great way to get another segment of the community involved and provide us with the opportunity to show them what we’re all about.”

The local incarnation of the fundraiser is “Art Strings: The Painted Violins.” It invited 15 professional visual artists in the area to use the full-sized violins as their canvases. Two celebrity artists, Boyd Tinsley, violinist with the Dave Matthews Band, and Sen. John W. Warner, R-Alexandria, each painted a violin as well.

When the painted instruments were unveiled last month during a ceremony in the Dome Room of the Rotunda, they exceeded many expectations. Pat Davis, chair of Art Strings, was one of the people bowled over by the finished products.

“Even though I have seen pictures of painted violins from other projects, I was not fully prepared for how perfectly beautiful these violins would be,” said Davis, who was on the symphony’s board for several years and has served as its president.

“Somehow it’s hard to wrap your imagination around them until you actually see them. They have created a lot of buzz around town, which is exactly what we had hoped for.

“The idea behind the project is to bring our terrific symphony orchestra to the forefront so more people in Charlottesville will know about it. The symphony is a real jewel in our cultural crown.

“I’m always surprised when I speak with people around town that there are those who don’t realize we have such an excellent orchestra.”

During April the violins will be exhibited at Sage Moon Gallery on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall and at Les Yeux du Monde gallery at 115 S. First St. In May they will be on display in store windows at the Barracks Road Shopping Center.

They will be auctioned off on June 7 during a gala evening of fine dining and music at UVa’s Abbott Center. James Godfrey, formerly of Sotheby’s, will serve as the auctioneer.

The auction will be the culmination of a project that showcases the community’s wealth of artistic talent, as well as its generosity. All the violins were supplied by an anonymous donor, and the artists gave freely of their talents to support the effort.

“We were extremely pleased that all but one or two of the artists we asked were very willing and excited to participate in the project,” Martin said. “We also thought it would add something to the project if we had a couple celebrity artists as well.

“Of course, we immediately thought of Boyd Tinsley, because he’s a violinist. And Senator Warner is an artist who paints regularly, so we were very pleased when he agreed to participate.”

When internationally known artist Fred Nichols received his wooden canvas at his Barboursville studio he immediately saw one of the challenges this kind of project presents. What do you do to enhance the look of an instrument already beautiful in form?

“It’s always a challenge to face a blank white canvas,” said Nichols, who has exhibited his work from Japan to Uzbekistan. “I wanted to do something that would relate music to art and art to music.

“Pretty much everything I do has a lot of color, and I feel music is a lot about color. I had been working on a print and a watercolor of a sunset over the Shenandoah Valley with Massanutten in the middle.
“Sunsets are a climactic time of the day when this often intense, colorful moment comes and goes very quickly. So I saw this as a nice relationship between a visual sunset and, perhaps, the crescendo in a piece of music.”

The array of ideas the artists transposed onto their violins is impressive. John Borden Evans’ “Old Elephant” includes ears and tusks to make it look like the face of an aged pachyderm.

Edward Thomas’ “Coal Tower Tracks” is an image of the familiar Charlottesville landmark.

Anne Slaughter named her finished instrument “Christo’s Violin” and applied her skills to create a wood grain pattern.

P. Buckley Moss created “The Cats and the Fiddle.” Her reputation and the eye-catching cats she painted on her violin should make for some energetic bidding when her violin goes on the sale block.

Gwyn Kohr’s “Symphonic Flight” depicts a hummingbird and musical notes floating above a golden field. “I had been doing a series of tree paintings with gold leaf, and I wanted to incorporate something that would fit in with the musical theme and the symphony,” Kohr said.

“I think the symphony helps elevate the arts, so I felt the floating hummingbird and the music would be an appropriate theme for the violin. “It was really fun to do this, because there were no limitations or restrictions as to what we could do with the violin. It was exciting for me as an artist to go to the unveiling and see how creative all the artists were and how diverse all the violins were."

“I think this project is a win-win for the artists, community and the symphony.”

A grant from Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews Band supported an offshoot program of the Art Strings project. It enabled third- and fourth-graders in city schools to show their artistic abilities and learn about the inspirational qualities that music has.

“The purpose of the Art Strings in School program is to get children interested in music and show how music can inspire you in other endeavors, whether it’s art or something completely different,” Martin said.

“Our concertmaster, David Colwell, and a visual artist visited classes in city schools and had an interactive experience with the students. David played and talked about the violin, and what inspires him when he plays his music. Then the artist translated that into how music can be inspirational in creating a work of art. Then each of the students was given a cardboard cutout of a violin on which they created their own paintings.”

People attending the symphony concerts April 12 and 13 in Old Cabell Hall will see the student violins on display. These won’t be for sale, and it’s anyone’s guess what their wooden counterparts will go for. Martin said painted violins at other projects have demanded prices from about $500 and higher. Even before the first bid has been shouted out, the local violins have proven their worth as objects of art and also have demonstrated their power to bring people together.

“I love to see this sort of collaboration between different genres of the arts,” Davis said. “To have painting and music combined in this way is very special.”

Details

The painted violins will be on exhibit at Sage Moon Gallery and Les Yeux du Monde gallery during April. In May they will be on display at various venues at the Barracks Road Shopping Center. On June 7 the instruments will be auctioned off during a gala event at UVa’s Abbott Center. Individual tickets are $150. To make reservations call the symphony office at 924-3139. www.cvillesymphony.org/artstrings.

Art Strings In Schools

The Charlottesville & University Symphony has also mounted a parallel program of education and outreach entitled Art Strings In Schools that has provided musician and artist visits to city schools in March, designated ‘Music in our Schools Month’ by the National Association for Music Education.  Symphony Concertmaster David Colwell and artist Kristen Nyce visited third and fourth grade students in the schools to present this unique multi-disciplinary, interactive arts experience.  The students were led in creating their own violin art that will now be on display at schools, concerts, and events in the community.  After visiting many students, David Colwell said “It was a real joy to be involved in a project that wonderfully combines music and art, and to share my love of music with the students.  They seemed genuinely inspired by the project.”

Art Strings In Schools is supported by the Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews Band, and the Art Strings project is underwritten by Chase Investment Counsel Corporation.

Read the original article at the Daily Progress.