LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 50 With the Ausable Theater, residents of the Ausable Forks region will now have access to the arts right in their own backyard. But as it goes with any renovation project, unexpected costs can arise. The theater was recently met with its next financial hurdle: supplying ample insulation to warm the building through the frigid, long North Countr y winters. The cost? $40,000. As they considered options, Andrew couldn't help but notice that a certain date was soon approaching: August 27, Andrew's "golden" fiftieth birthday. As one who loves birthday festivities — both for his own birthday and for those he loves — Andrew made the decision prior to his landmark celebration to use the number as motivation for the pair's greatest artistic undertaking yet. "I am going to raise $50,000, or at least I'm going to tr y," Andrew said with a grin. "50k for 50 years." And with that, the "Artists For the Ausable Theater" art auction was born. An- drew and Jabaut turned to artists the pair had encountered throughout their fruitful artistic careers, and they were met with a barrage of support. "It's a big compliment that we are able to have such a ro- bust group of people that we've cultivated — as friends, as colleagues, as people we've done other art events with over the years — who have faith that we are able to pull this off, that we are able to create this public space that is going to be a real draw to other artists," Jabaut said. "They've seen these other art events [we've done in the past] and under- stand that we can do that same thing on a weekly and month- ly basis with this space. A lot of these are artists we've known for twenty or thirty years— back at the start of their careers — and are now late into their careers. Along the way, we sup- ported them, and now they're in a place where they want to support us." The pieces for the auction included watercolors, oil paint- ings, sculptures, photography, and ceramic work. Many of the artists are local or based out of Brooklyn (Note: some of the contributing artists for the fundraiser are listed at the end of this piece). A sampling of the art includes donations from estates Andrew has personally worked with, including the estate of painter Elizabeth Murray (1940 -2007) whom Andrew believes "redefined what painting is." "There's this real curatorial aspect to art which can be great, but that doesn't mean it needs to be rare or it has to be difficult to find."

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