SPARTshow connects sport and art

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley

RICHMOND, Va. – Sport and art come together at Virginia Commonwealth University for the first event of its kind – the inaugural VCU SportsCenter SPARTshow – an art auction that features the work of sports artists as well as the work of athletes who are artists.

The SPARTSHOW will be held 7 p.m. – 10 p.m., Thursday, April 3 at VCU’s Stuart C. Siegel Center in Richmond. 

Sport and art are a natural combination, said Susie Dee, who came up with the idea for the SPARTshow.  Dee is an artist athlete – graduating Summa Cum Laude from VCU in May 2002 with a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in communications arts and design.  She also was a VCU women’s basketball standout, named to Colonial Athletic Association All-Academic Team in 2002.  

“Just as I have to be aware of the whole court as a basketball player, I have to be aware of the whole canvas as a painter,” Dee said.  “Rhythm, balance, motion, creativity, image – they are all elements that fit into both realms of athletics and art.”

Dee is a student at VCU’s graduate Sports Leadership Program, the beneficiary of the SPARTshow.  She and a team of graduate students have organized the raffle and silent auction of art, the proceeds of which will be used to continue the development of the VCU SportsCenter by creating scholarships, professor chairs, student publications and a library. 

The SPARTshow will showcase works from nationally renowned sports artists including:

• Sam Bass, VCU graduate and NASCAR’s first officially licensed artist;

• Bart Forbes, United States Sports Academy Artist of the Year in 1996; He has received more than 50 awards of excellence from the New York Society of Illustrators;

• Edgar Brown, who has produced some of the most powerful sports paintings in the world.  He will donate a painting of Michael Curry, Detroit Pistons player and NBA Association President, to the auction.  Curry is a 2002 graduate of the VCU SportsCenter. 

In addition, VCU Rector Dr. Baxter Perkinson has donated an original painting, “Water Sports,” for the SPARTshow.  A noted landscape artist, he has auctioned his paintings for several fundraisers, including raising $100,000 for VCU athletic scholarships.

VCU athletics also has teamed up with senior illustration students from the VCU School of the Arts to create illustrations of VCU Hall of Fame athletes.

For more information on the SPARTshow, contact www.SPARTshow.com or call 804.828.8326.