Author: Noelle Derksen
On Saturday October 22, 2022, I had the great honor of being part of the Silver Eye Center for Contemporary Photography's Annual Benefit Auction. As a Silver Eye Scholar, I had the opportunity to see the auction through from start to finish, working as a part of the collaborative team. I assisted in many different tasks throughout the Fall semester in order to prepare for the event, such as creating a crib sheet for our auctioneer, writing about the artworks for social media outreach, working on marketing strategies, general event planning, and more. I also worked on the floor on auction night. About one hundred different lots were auctioned off, all donated generously by peers of Silver Eye. The Benefit Auction is the largest fundraiser for Silver Eye and helps the center to run as an open space for creativity, inclusion, and community in Pittsburgh.
Leading up to the auction, I worked on creating a “crib sheet” for our auctioneer. This was a document detailing each of the auction pieces in concise, easily-digestible segments for our auctioneer to use as a guidebook as she sold each piece. I spent a lot of time researching the backgrounds and practices of the artists in our auction, preparing summaries of their accomplishments and ambitions. This was a way for our auctioneer to provide quick information and points of interest to the crowd when presenting each work of art. It also served to amplify the voices of artists themselves, and provide them with agency in the representation of their work. I had a lot of fun getting to know the photographers and their work, as well as strengthening my writing skills in the context of contemporary art. Before auction night, I also contributed to marketing and outreach strategies for the event and shadowed my supervisors, Leo Hsu, Helen Trompeteler, Jillian Daniels, and Sean Stewart in their different preparatory tasks.
On the big night, I got to work on the process of selling, tagging, packing, and delivering the artworks to their new owners. I also had the opportunity to mingle with some of the artists, friends of Silver Eye, and other peers at the event. It was incredibly exciting to see everyone’s hard work result in great success. Throughout the semester, I have also gotten the opportunity to write community perspectives on art works in the gallery, which have been posted on Instagram for social media outreach. I have assisted in the gallery, as well as in the Silver Eye printing lab, with a wide variety of operations, granting me incredible insight and experience into the practices of a contemporary art space. Shadowing my supervisors through different workshops and meetings, I have developed skills in curatorial theory, exhibition presentation, art handling, art-based writing, programming, marketing, and so much more. Soon, I will begin working on my final project, in which I will interview an artist and develop an online exhibition. I am so grateful for my time here at Silver Eye and excited to see what’s in store for my next semester here with the team!
Noelle Derksen, Museum Studies intern at the Silver Eye Center for Photography, Fall 2022