SOBO Art Gallery fundraiser to feature Andy Warhol print

Elizabeth McKinney, executive director of SOBO Art Gallery, was meticulous when opening the box the gallery received Thursday, April 17. 

Opening the box was like opening a present on Christmas morning for McKinney and the staff and volunteers at SOBO. 

But rather than the year’s hottest toy, it was an Andy Warhol print donated to the gallery. 

“To say we’re thrilled is such an understatement,” McKinney said. “This is such a rare opportunity not only for us as a small nonprofit, but for a relatively small town, you know, this just doesn’t happen. So to have that chance to, first, have the piece and, second, be able to share it with people and someone will get to take it home with them is an incredible opportunity.”

The print of Warhol’s “Christmas Tree” will be included in SOBO Art Gallery’s Enchanting Winter Garden, a fundraiser for the gallery and the Winter Garden Art Association Saturday, April 26. 

Courtesy photo

Power of connection

McKinney said the Warhol piece is “truly a gift out of the blue” — it’s rare for the Winter Garden gallery to have artwork from a famous artist such as Warhol. 

The gallery came into possession of the Warhol print through the power of connections and a trip to Mexico City, Mexico. 

Ryan Hinricher, a Winter Garden Art Association board member, was on a Spanish immersion trip in Mexico City. During a visit to an art museum, he struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler, Nicole Sharp. Sharp owns an art gallery with her mother, Rhonda Long-Sharp, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The two bonded over their love of art. 

Later while viewing an exhibit at the Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary in Miami, Hinricher, along with Winter Garden Art Association board member Michael Morrissey, ran into Sharp once again. They told her about the Winter Garden Art Association and SOBO Art Gallery. 

Hinricher said he and Morrissey told Sharp and Long-Sharp about the Tourist Development Tax grant the Winter Garden Art Association received to build the new Winter Garden Museum of Art and the upcoming fundraiser. 

Sharp and Long-Sharp were impressed with the work the nonprofit was doing to support local artists and give back to the community and decided to donate the Warhol print to the nonprofit. 

“It’s a little surreal, because life is really about connections,” Hinricher said. “What I’ve learned in the space of art and culture is you meet the most interesting people that come from a variety of backgrounds and different industries. Art is one of the great unifiers that crosses the bridge of all socioeconomic groups, all races, all religions, every walk of life. People love art, so I think it brings people together.”

Hinricher said the Warhol print will be a conversation piece that hopefully also will be competitive at auction. 

The “Christmas Tree” was a collaboration in the 1950s when Warhol created Christmas invitations for Tiffany & Co. The prints became well known, but they were limited. 

“That type of piece for us is something that would have been unattainable or unthinkable a while back, and I think it shows the progress that we’ve made as an organization,” Hinricher said. 

McKinney said she’s looking forward to seeing how excited and surprised people will be that a “small town, a small gallery could have that quality and that famous of an artist represented.”

“I want to see everybody be as thrilled as we were,” she said. “This just doesn’t happen every day.”

One piece can make a difference

Enchanting Winter Garden is SOBO Art Gallery’s annual fundraiser in downtown Winter Garden that features dinner and dancing as well as a live and silent auction. About six different artists will be in tents creating artwork during the event.

The Warhol print will be a part of the live auction at the fundraiser, with a potential starting bid of $6,000. McKinney said the print is valued between $6,000 and $12,000. 

“This is a gorgeous, very ornate Christmas tree, but like Andy Warhol, it’s not typical in any way,” McKinney said. “It’s made up of all different little figures and the way they interact together. To be able to have a piece of his art and hold it in my hands, wow.”

With $6,000, the Winter Garden Art Association would be able to continue its Young Creatives program, which offers high school and college students an opportunity to  enter three to four competitions per year to showcase their artwork and have it judged with potential for prizes. 

“The whole idea behind that is we want to see our young artists recognized along with our athletes,” McKinney said. “Our athletes get all kinds of recognition. The artists, not so much, so we’re creating our own program to showcase them and to encourage them and to let them know what they do is important.”

The fundraiser also will support other programs, such as Technique Tuesday, which is a weekly free art class open to the community for any adult. A different art instructor comes in each week to teach a new technique. The program costs about $8,000 per year. 

Another program the fundraiser will support is the program at Edgewood Children’s Ranch that costs about $5,000 per year. The association pays to send an art teacher to Edgewood Children’s Ranch to work with the students. 

McKinney said having a piece like Warhol’s at the auction that can bring in a high dollar amount for the nonprofit is an “answer to a prayer.”

“The arts are being less and less funded,” she said. “We’ve been very lucky. We have a very supportive city, and we’re able to survive, but that allows us to expand some of our programs. Quite honestly, if we don’t raise money for it, we’ll have to discontinue something, so that gives us an opportunity to keep doing what we believe are very valuable programs.”