The annual Splash! Art at the Museum reception and auction, coming up March 16, is one of the Harbor History Museum’s biggest fundraising events of the year.

In the event’s fourth year, organizers hope to boost the evening’s profile as a chance both to help the museum and to get up close and personal with acclaimed artists and their work.

“There’s no opportunity in Gig Harbor to see or purchase art of this caliber,” said Jane Koler, a Gig Harbor lawyer who is a member of Splash’s selection jury, which chooses art pieces for display and sale at the event.

This year’s show will feature work from 10 local and nationally recognized artists, some of whom will be in attendance. Fifty-five pieces will be featured, 15 at a live auction. Many of the works are currently on display in the museum’s lobby.

The evening also will feature a silent auction, hoers d’oeuvres and music from fiddle group Spare Thyme.

Koler said Splash! is still something of an unknown commodity in Gig Harbor due to its affiliation with the museum. People don’t expect to see high-quality art at a history museum, she said.

“They assume that everything in the Harbor History Museum has to do with history,” Koler said.
But Splash! plays a critical role in the museum’s annual budget, museum development director Tami McDaniel said.

The event’s fundraising goal typically is about $30,000 in profit, which goes directly into the general operating fund that supports the museum’s exhibits and educational programs.

“It’s extremely vital,” McDaniel said of Splash!

Money raised comes via ticket sales and auction items.

Proceeds from the auctioned items are divided evenly between the museum and the artist – a relatively unusual policy, Koler said, because artists often are asked to donate their work. Splash! organizers decided to share proceeds to attract more well-known and respected artists.

The push to make Splash! a showcase for high-caliber art has been a goal from the beginning, Koler said.

“We’re hopeful that, each year, we gain more and more recognition,” she said.

McDaniel hopes the quality of art and the chance to observe and bid on the works, will draw guests who may not otherwise visit the museum. Last year, more than 200 people attended. Organizers are planning to reach the museum’s capacity of 250 this year.

“This can bring a whole group of people to the museum who might not come to see the exhibits but who love to see art,” McDaniel said, adding she expects fine-art collectors – like Koler, who also has a master’s degree in art history – to attend.

Ten featured artists were chosen by a jury that includes Tom Torrens and David Keyes, two artists whose work will be on display. The selection process takes most of the year, McDaniel said, and the participation of Torrens and Keyes helped the museum reach out to a few of their well-known colleagues in the art world.

The jury met once a month and visited regional studios and galleries.

“We were looking for artists who are both known and new to the community,” said Torrens, a metal sculptor whose work includes the “Ringing in the Salmon” bell installed at Donkey Creek Park in 2009. “We want art that’s saleable but also shows a high degree of design.”

Torrens will have one piece at the event, a standing sculpture. Other featured artists will be William Carson, a young Tacoma native and glassblower, and Georgia Gerber, a Whidbey Island sculptor who created the famous life-sized pig sculpture in front of Seattle’s Pike Place Market.

Student artwork from Hilltop Artists, the nonprofit glassblowing program founded by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, also will be available for auction. The work was produced by students from Gig Harbor, Peninsula and Henderson Bay high schools, and it will be on display in the museum’s Midway Schoolhouse exhibit.

Tickets for Splash! can be purchased at the Harbor History Museum’s front desk, by calling 253-858-6722 or visiting www.splashartauction.org.