By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
In April, artists throughout central and north-central Kansas began working toward a common goal: to create sunflower art to benefit Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Poland.
This past week, their goal was realized as the group announced that approximately $3,500 had been raised during a June showing and sale of the collection at The Flower Nook in Salina.
"I just picked up the remaining work today, and Wayne (DeBey) wrote us a check for $3493. Isn't that amazing!! We'll for sure throw in the $7 so we hit $3,500," benefit organizer Linda Foster, of Miltonvale, told Salina Post on Monday.
Foster said that total may rise a bit as there were a couple of additional pending sales.
Bountiful harvest of art grew from simple idea to help
Foster told Salina Post in an earlier interview that the idea of painting sunflowers came to her shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"I was going to do just a simple project in my hometown of Miltonvale. Paint and draw sunflowers. Put them in the window. Price them to sell. Donate the money," Foster said.
Life, however, got in the way and Foster put the idea aside until April, when she read an article in Hyperallergic, an online arts magazine, about the Warsaw Museum of Modern Art opening its doors to help Ukrainian refugees.
"They were doing things like making sandwiches and helping people fill out paperwork, and connecting them with medical services," Foster said. "They were also doing what we would think of as an art museum program. They were having poetry readings. They were opening up space for people to make things. But there was this whole other turn that they had made just because there was a humanitarian need."
The magazine article inspired Foster to revive her idea. Foster reached out to fellow artist Debbie Wagner who heads the Kansas Figure Drawing Group and owns the Three Rivers Gallery in Bennington. Wagner agreed to help without hesitation.
"We reached out to our group and there was just immediate buy-in from our group," Foster said in an earlier interview.
Finding the perfect location
With the art creating component in place, the group needed a location for people to view and purchase the art. Enter Peggy and Wayne DeBey at The Flower Nook in downtown Salina.
For a number of years, the DeBeys have promoted in The Flower Nook the work of local and area artists and artisans. Not only were the works of artists and artisans featured in The Flower Nook for a length of time, but they also were highlighted during the shop's First Friday events each month.
The Sunflower Project fit nicely with that philosophy. It also dovetailed nicely into The Flower Nook's epic Final First Friday on June 3.
Word had gotten out in late May that Peggy and Wayne were planning to retire at the end of June and that the June First Friday event would be The Flower Nook's last one.
READ: Peggy and Wayne DeBey to retire; The Flower Nook closing
The DeBeys agreed to host the Sunflower Project and to feature it as a part of the Final First Friday. Peggy also told Foster and Wagner that they would not charge a commission for the show so that 100 percent of what was sold would go to Ukrainian refugees. Additionally, the DeBeys put out a collection jar in The Flower Nook for people who wanted to contribute to the Sunflower Project without purchasing art.
"Without The Flower Nook I fear it would have fallen flat," Foster said of the Sunflower Project. "Peg and I agreed that it was a perfect alignment: Their last First Friday, segue into retirement with a meaningful project, and the Sunflower Project itself."