Event Benefits the Tarrant County AIDS Interfaith Network;
Artist Bob Wade and Claire Barry are Honorary Chairs and
Jake Gilson the Featured Artist.

The Annual Artists Against AIDS Silent Art Auction benefiting the Tarrant County AIDS Interfaith Network (TCAIN) will take place on Friday, September 30, 2005 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center.

Food, music, an open bar (wine and beer), and a silent auction are highlights of the affair, which features a selection of high-quality art from local and regional artists. Tickets for the Auction and Party are $35.  The event will be preceded on Thursday, September 29, 2005 with a $100 Preview Reception at the same venue from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.

A selection of works that will be part of the silent auction will be on view at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center beginning Saturday, September 10, 2005 (Gallery Night in Fort Worth), and will remain on view through the event on September 30.
This year’s honorary chairs are Bob “Daddy-O” Wade and Claire Barry.

Bob Wade, an Austin native, received a BFA from the University of Texas Austin and an MA from the University of California Berkeley. The artist is a recipient of three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and has been included in Biennials in Paris, New Orleans, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Works by Bob Wade are included in the collections of the Menil Collection, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Austin Museum of Art, Chase Manhattan Bank, and AT&T. His work is also in numerous prestigious private collections throughout the world.

Claire Barry is Chief Conservator of Paintings at The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Since 1992 her responsibilities have included caring for both the collections of The Kimbell Art Museum and the Amon Carter Museum. Prior to joining the Kimbell, she trained for several years under John Brealey at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Claire received her Masters degree in art conservation at the Cooperstown Graduate Program in New York in 1981 and her A.B. in art history in Oberlin College in 1977. Claire is a collector of Texas contemporary art.

Jake Gilson is this year’s featured artist. Gilson, a native Californian and long-time Texas resident is currently living in Utah. His work has recently been featured in the exhibition Surface at William Campbell Contemporary Art in Fort Worth and in a solo exhibition at the Amarillo Museum of Art. The artist has also exhibited at the Laguna Beach Art Museum, Long Beach Art Museum, Blue Star Art Space in San Antonio, the Tyler Museum of Art and the Heard Museum in Phoenix. His work has been commissioned for public art projects, including the city of Austin’s Art in Public Places program, a collaboration with Tre Arenz.

TCAIN has been compassionately meeting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people living with HIV/AIDS in Tarrant County and seven surrounding rural counties for over a decade. It is a non-profit organization that depends largely on financial donations and volunteer services. Through a small staff and hundreds of dedicated volunteers, TCAIN provides in-home respite care, health education, spiritual counseling, prescription drug delivery, case management, HIV prevention education, and dental services.

Tickets for the Silent Auction on September 30 are $35, and are available in advance or at the door. Admission to the Preview Reception on September 29 is $100, and includes tickets to the Silent Auction the following evening. To reserve tickets in advance, call 817-923-2800. For more information visit the website at www.tcain.org. The Fort Worth Community Arts Center is located at 1309 Montgomery Street at Camp Bowie Boulevard, across Lancaster Street from the Amon Carter Museum.