An online art auction this spring will benefit ministries in the Diocese of Scranton.<\/p>\n
The auction, taking place Monday through May 1, will feature more than 20 paintings of local Catholic churches and sacred spaces by Archbald resident Austin Burke. It will be hosted by the Catholic Foundation for the Diocese of Scranton.<\/p>\n
Proceeds will benefit the foundation\u2019s \u201cFounders Fund,\u201d an initiative designed to expand the foundation\u2019s capacity to serve parishes, schools, and diocesan ministries, and support the long-term pastoral, educational and service ministries of the diocese.<\/p>\n
This is the first year the foundation is hosting the auction. Executive Director Mark DiPippa said they decided to do it when Burke approached the foundation last year saying he wanted to donate some of his paintings and support it. The foundation suggested churches for Burke to paint.<\/p>\n
Burke, an artist, philanthropist, former president of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce and longtime community leader, said he depicted so many churches in 25 years of painting \u2014 including his parish, Christ the King in Archbald \u2014 that they were taking up wall space in his home. DiPippa asked him to paint more so there were enough for the auction.<\/p>\n
Burke spent the past year painting church buildings in Northeast and North Central Pennsylvania from photographs that he, DiPippa and Joseph Strubeck, diocesan secretary for development, had taken. Although he paints other iconic buildings, he likes painting churches because they are interesting architecturally and from a faith perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cChurches are some \u2026 of the nicest real estate, some of the nicest architectural gems that we have to paint here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and we got good photos of them,\u201d Burke said. \u201cIt was inspiring to be able to sit down and work through them and paint them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he was familiar with some of the churches and got to know others through his work with the foundation.<\/p>\n
The paintings up for auction are:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Annunciation Church in Williamsport<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cathedral of St. Peter in Scranton<\/p>\n
\u2022 Epiphany Church in Sayre<\/p>\n
\u2022 Resurrection Church in Muncy<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Mayfield<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sacred Heart of Mary Church in Jermyn<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Ann Basilica and Grotto in Scranton<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Catherine of Siena Church in Moscow<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. John the Evangelist Church in Honesdale<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Jude Church in Mountain Top<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Luke Church in Stroudsburg<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Mary of Czestochowa Church in Eynon<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Mary of Mount Carmel Church in Dunmore<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Mary of Vilna Church in Eynon<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Matthew Church in East Stroudsburg<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Nicholas Church in Wilkes-Barre<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Patrick Church in Scranton<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Rose of Lima Church in Carbondale<\/p>\n
\u2022 St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Archbald<\/p>\n
\u2022 Basilica of Padre Pio in Italy<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cathedral Prayer Garden in Scranton<\/p>\n
\u2022 Marian Chapel at Marywood University<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Angel of Agonies statue in Scranton<\/p>\n
A preview of several paintings was displayed earlier this year during a bishop\u2019s reception.<\/p>\n
Bids will be accepted beginning Monday and the auction will be available via the Diocese of Scranton website at dioceseofscranton.org<\/a> and the Catholic Foundation website at catholicfoundationscranton.org<\/a>. Bidding information and a full gallery of the available artwork will also be available on the auction website.<\/p>\n The highest bidder on each piece of artwork will be invited to a reception at the Cathedral Rectory with Bishop Joseph C. Bambera on an evening in May. Burke also agreed to do a painting of a church of the highest bidder\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n DiPippa said the auction is a good way for the public to learn about the foundation, which started in 2023 to sustain and nurture the pastoral, educational and service ministries of the diocese, its parishes, schools and organizations through endowments, planned gifts and other financial contributions. He hopes the money raised will help the organization, which DiPippa said was set up to help start fundraising for the foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re hoping this makes an impact and allows us to do what we can do for the long term \u2026 to affect these ministries well into the future,\u201d he said. \u201cMy hope is that through the work that we do in the foundation, that we\u2019re setting up for long-term success for the church, not just for today or tomorrow.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have an annual appeal that we do and those things for the yearly and the daily operation things, but this foundation is really set up looking toward the future and how people can give and then set a legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An online art auction this spring will benefit ministries in the Diocese of Scranton. The auction, taking place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,73033,73034,73038,63784,73036,178,180,179,73035,73037],"class_list":{"0":"post-161853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-archbald","9":"tag-austin-burke","10":"tag-catholic-foundation","11":"tag-diocesan-ministries","12":"tag-diocese-of-scranton","13":"tag-local-catholic-churches","14":"tag-scranton","15":"tag-scranton-headlines","16":"tag-scranton-news","17":"tag-service-ministries","18":"tag-the-foundation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}