Buffalo History Museum ‘paints the city’ with local art inspired by artifacts

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo History Museum is preparing to paint the city with local artwork inspired by its artifact collection.

“Paint the Town is our local art auction that we have been doing for 22 years,” said Development Director Megan Hahin. “This year we did it a little differently, so there’s a little twist where we used our collection as inspiration.”

The artists were invited to the History Museum’s resource center on Forest Avenue, to find inspiration from the artifacts collected.

“I think it’s just fun to see the artists’ works on sort of our collection and then painting the city as a whole, it’s about interpreting our city and all the big iconic structures as well” , Hahin said.

John Salmeri III created a replica of the 1901 exposition poster, featuring Niagara Falls, titled “Still Accepting Tickets.”

“I’ve looked after the building for the last three years, so I’ve developed a relationship with it and I’ve been looking at this painting for about three years, and it’s just inspired me,” he said. “I have been in the exhibition for twenty years now and this is the first time I have seen it under the portico.”

Andy Krzyrstek was inspired by a man-made structure from the Pan-American era that returned to the museum decades later.

“It was one of the first Pan-Am buildings,” he said. “It was a memory cabin. Then it was sold. It ended up in the suburbs as someone’s flash game place.”

The owner’s daughter later found out where it came from and contacted the history museum.

“It found its way into the history museum collection, and that’s what inspired it.” said the Krzyrstek.

Patti Thomas, aka The Ghost, decided to share a little of her personal story with “Picass-her”.

“It kind of represents the beginning of my artistic journey, not that long ago,” she said. “It means a lot to me because it was kind of a discovery phase, trying to figure out who I wanted to become and experimenting with inspiration from different artists.”

Paint the Town will take place on Thursday, May 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Buffalo History Museum.

The exhibition will be open during the museum’s regular opening hours leading up to the event.