At the Festival of Arts recent Annual Meeting, Pat Sparkuhl was honored with a Life Membership and some well deserved praise and public recognition for his 40+ years of affiliation with the organization.
Pat’s influence can be found in current Festival programs and activities including Artists’ Advisory Committee, art education programs, satellite exhibits including foaSOUTH, Exhibit and Jury Formation Committee and the popular docent program. Pat is always quick to point out that he has worked in collaboration with so many wonderful Festival people on all of these projects. Some of them include: David Sabaroff, Jack Archer, Patrick Kelly, Monica Dunham, Sharbie Higuchi, Kathy Pitts, and Tom Lamb.
Pat not only served as Curator of the Festival’s Permanent Art Collection, but was instrumental in seeing that this collection of work was properly housed and cataloged, a painstaking and tedious job, but one that Pat was passionate about.
But Pat’s true passion is his artwork. He exhibited at the Festival of Arts for 28 years. His work is exciting, provocative and always provided food for discussion. Here is Pat’s perspective on his body of work: “I attempt to make art that has its own fingerprint. The images I explore focus on the concerns and relationships to social issues I feel are relevant. I seek out unique and personal ways of integrating the various ingredients for my compositions, attempting to develop for the viewer an attitude of curiosity and discussion when viewing a particular artwork.”
These remarks from Pat at our recent Annual Meeting best sum up Pat’s many years of collaboration here at the Festival of Arts: “Year after year, the Festival of Arts gave me an opportunity to exhibit my artwork, you supported many of my ideas to help advance the educational benefits for the public, and for the past 10 years, supporting the collaborative efforts of organizing and exhibiting artwork from the Festival’s Permanent Art Collection.”
Thank you Pat!