Weavers Way Community Programs Announces 'Spring for Art' Fundraiser
Painter and sculptor Robert Blunk's 90th birthday gift benefits Mt. Airy nonprofit
PHILADELPHIA, April 2, 2014 — Weavers Way Community Programs will host its inaugural fine-art benefit sale and auction, “Spring for Art,” on Friday, April 18, and Saturday, April 19, featuring selected works by noted painter and sculptor Robert Blunk.
To celebrate his 90th birthday, Blunk has donated an original gouache, Stonington Elements II. The opening bid is $1,000, and prints of the piece will be also be available for sale for $150. All proceeds benefit WWCP and are tax-deductible. In addition to the gouache, 24 limited-edition portfolios of eightprints of the artist's work are available for $400 each. Twenty-five percent of proceeds from sales of the portfolios also benefit WWCP.
WWCP, the nonprofit arm of Weavers Way Co-op, runs urban agriculture and nutrition programs for children at Weavers Way Farms (at Saul Agricultural High School and Awbury Arboretum) and at the Hope Garden at Stenton Family Manor, a homeless shelter.
The event will take place at the Mt. Airy residence of Rob Kulathinal. Attendees will have an opportunity to meet the artist, who will be visiting from his home in Denver.
Robert Blunk was born in 1923 in Salyards, KS. After serving in the Pacific with the Marine Corps in World War II, he attended the Kansas City Institute of the Arts, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1950. He later earned a Masters of Fine Arts at Pittsburg (KS) State University, and worked toward his doctorate at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. For over 40 years, he had a notable teaching career combined with an active practice creating public sculptures, designs and installations.
Times for the event are 6 to 9 p.m. April 18 and 3 to 6 p.m. April 19. Weavers Way Co-op is donating light fare and Zavino Wine Bar Pizzeria is providing wine.
Stonington Elements II and the limited edition portfolio of Blunk’s work, Stops Along the Way: Excerpts from His Visual Journals 1948-2013, can be viewed by visitingwww.weaversway.coop/springforart.
For more information on Robert Blunk or his work, contact curator Stephanie Jackson Dillon at stephaniejdillon@gmail.com.
WWCP thanks the event sponsors, Avenue Arts and Framing in Mt. Airy and Profiles Printmaking Studio in Chestnut Hill, for their generous support.
About Weavers Way: Founded in 1973 as a neighborhood buying club, “the Co-op” now encompasses two grocery stores, two specialty wellness and beauty shops and a pet store in Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. Weavers Way is member-owned, open to the public and committed to offering quality products that are local, sustainable and nutritious. For more information, visit www.weaversway.coop.
