Note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Vesna Savic's name.

"30 x 30" project intern Jordan Griffin, left, and volunteer Rosana Lee hang up art pieces Monday afternoon for the "30 x 30" art show and benefit at the Ann Arbor Art Center.

Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

The Ann Arbor Art Center's ambitious 30 x 30 = 1 fundraiser challenged 30 artists to make 30 artworks each, over the course of 30 days.

The pieces will be sold for $40 each to raise funds for the Art Center’s Art for Kids Scholarship program. Artworks will be on view in the second floor galleries of the center, 117 West Liberty Street, beginning February 18. Patrons can scramble to buy their favorite pieces, beginning at noon, on February 20. The sale will run until 5 p.m. that day or until all of the artworks sell.

The challenge originally asked painters to contribute 30 paintings on 10 x 12" canvases that the Art Center supplied to participating artists. Enthusiastic artists working in a variety of media were also welcomed into the fold. Most of the artists featured in the fundraiser are using the 10 x 12" canvases to create paintings or mixed-media artworks. Others are contributing jewelry, ceramics, prints and additional types of art.

Be ready to buy what you like, on February 20, because there is a catch. If you take a painting off of the wall or pick up that piece of jewelry you have been eyeing, you must buy it. Art Center president / CEO Marsha Chamberlin says this rule worked well at a similar event held in Seattle that director of programs Josie Bockelman attended, where it “created a rush,” she relates.

“We hope the rule creates a sense of pent-up demand. People are going to have to make decisions quickly to get what they want,” Chamberlin says. If there is a mad rush for the artworks, the rule should also help keep the hordes in line. “It’s almost like being at Filene’s Basement when the wedding dresses come in. You don’t want someone to be hogging a bunch of them, if they are not going to buy them,” she laughs.

With so many artworks to choose from, Chamberlin thinks that the show will give buyers “plenty of eye candy,” and “allow them to see many different artists’ processes,” she says.

Contributing artist Edmund Zagorin usually makes films, but he took the 30 x 30 challenge as an opportunity to create a series of abstract mixed-media artworks on canvas. His canvases explore “juxtapositions between overly opulent, excessive consumption and wealth and objects that represent violence and poverty.” For example, the royal purple splatter paint and Christmas cookie sprinkles featured on one of his canvases contrasts with the brick pattern Zagorin created with electrical tape and dirtied with charcoal on other canvas. He says his artworks, which often include only one or a few colors, “focus on the materials” with “an emphasis on texture” and “using materials to convey density and object-hood.”

Vesna Savic, a metal artist who works out of her MadMax Metalworks studio, has never worked with canvas before. She says the 30 x 30 challenge ended up encouraging her to take her art in “new directions.” For the fundraiser, Savic is incorporating metal into 10 x 12 inch mixed media painted canvases, including small strips of metal, pieces of wire and nails.

She reports that a few of the works will look “industrial and shiny,” and many of them “will look distressed.” For example, a particular canvas might have the qualities of “the surface of a car in the junk yard — with a rusted piece of metal added as an accent piece.” Savic says, she likes “the idea of something that has a story behind it. I like my stuff to look like it had a life before you got it.”

Painter Andrea Smith decided to paint the sunrise every morning for 30 days, from the window of her downtown Ann Arbor home or at friends’ and family members’ places — wherever she happened to be at sunrise each morning. Smith found the routine “meditative,” and “a way to make winter a little more fun.” Even on a gray day, the painter had fun finding the daily variations brought on by changes in weather and her location.

“Not every day is gonna have a brilliant sunrise, but everyday there was something unique about it. Those were the details I was trying to tap into,” she explains. Andrea’s mother, Becky Smith, a jewelry designer, is incorporating beads into the 30 canvases she is contributing to the 30 x 30 fundraiser.

The Art for Kids Scholarship Fund is the Art Center’s tuition scholarship program. “The program funds scholarships for kids who would not otherwise be able to take advantage of the opportunities the art center provides,” explains Marketing Manager and Art Consulting Services rep Beth Ressler. Scholarships cover students for an entire year, which equates to 3 semesters of classes and 1 week of camp.

“On one level the scholarship program is providing good cultural recreation and education. Then at another level, the kids just get a chance to lose themselves in art, in ideas, in color and in the medium,” Chamberlin says. She recognizes that in a tough economy, more and more people struggle to afford art classes. “It’s hard for people to ask for help, so we try to make it as easy as possible on them. We want to ask enough questions of applicants to assure ourselves that they are in real need. However, we try to not make that process intrusive for people,” Chamberlin explains.

“I was so pleased that so many artists jumped at the chance to participate in the fundraiser and support our scholarship program. We are really grateful that this is a collaborative effort between the Art Center and all of the artists,” Chamberlin says.

Jennifer Eberbach is a free-lance writer who covers art for AnnArbor.com.

Art Center volunteer Kory Riling of Ypsilanti hangs up art pieces Monday afternoon for the "30 x 30" art show and benefit at the Ann Arbor Art Center.

Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com