Joell Yarmel, executive director of the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, holds a framed photo of musician Trombone Shorty. This photo will be one of those available for bidding during the Kirby Center’s online photo auction, which will be active Thursday through Saturday. Sam Zavada | Times Leader WILKES-BARRE — The F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts will host an online photo auction Thursday through Saturday , Aug.1-3 . The Kirby Center’s mission programming, the in-house benefactor of the auction, aims to bring the arts and performances to community members who often miss out on these opportunities.
The auction will give concertgoers and Kirby Center admirers an opportunity to bid on exclusive photos from some of the venue’s recent shows. Bids can also be placed on photos of the Kirby Center itself.
The photos came from a number of sources, but it was the photography of Neil Prisco, the Kirby Center’s director of marketing, that sparked the idea to hold an online auction.
“Neil takes these photos at every single show, and throughout the year of our building,” said Jordan Steiner, associate director of development at the Kirby Center. “You can see [the photos] on our website or when we post them, but to see them in frames is really awesome, and it’s a great way for our members and the public to also own a little piece of that as well.”
This is not the first online photo auction the Kirby Center has done. They rolled out a similar concept during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Prisco, as well as other local photographers, contributed to that auction.
In 2024, photos included in the auction come from Prisco, Kirby Center marketing associate Gene Axton, and concert photographers Amanda Hrycyna, Scott Kucharski and Jason Riedmiller. Proceeds from the online auction will be split between the Kirby Center’s mission programming and the photographers who snapped the images.
Bidders will have a chance to snag photos of Billy Strings, Old Crow Medicine Show, Trombone Shorty, Derek Hough, and a number of other artists who have performed at the Kirby Center over the past few years.
Steiner said that bidders did not necessarily need to be at the show they bid on a photo from, nor do they need to be a local or a Kirby Center visitor. She suspected that a number of bidders will want the photo they bid on as a tribute to the artist depicted.
The context in which this online auction is taking place is not completely dissimilar to the 2020 version. The Kirby Center is currently in a “blacked out” period, according to executive director Joell Yarmel, until September. There have been no traditional live shows at the Kirby Center since June.
The lack of live performances is due to renovations happening throughout the building. Specifically, damage sustained from last October’s flooding incident is still on the mind of the Kirby Center’s leaders.
“All of us adore our building so much, and it’s been through so much” said Yarmel.
Regardless, the venue is still offering opportunities for the community to stay involved and remember what the Kirby Center offers. That includes the auction.
“We want to stay relevant,” said Yarmel. “We want to let the community know we’re still here. And what’s getting us through these few months without any live entertainment is reflecting on the last season that we had.”
The logistics of this auction are much different than they were in 2020. In the technical sense, Yarmel and Steiner are confident that the auction portal being implemented this time around will be much more user-friendly than the Facebook-based auction of 2020.
One feature of particular note for this year’s auction is the notification that will be sent to a bidder when they are upbid. This feature will allow for more active engagement with the auction.
The public will also be able to view the photos available in the auction without having to enter their credit card information, a convenient option for those looking to browse before placing a bid.
“You’ll be able to scroll through and see all the different categories, whether it’s by a certain photographer or from our Kirby photographer,” said Steiner of the auction portal’s additional customization.
Per Yarmel, Comitz Law Firm deserves credit for helping to bringing this online auction to life. They were the sponsors of the auction portal. When the photos are uploaded, the auction portal can be accessed at kirbycenter.org/auction .
The Kirby Center will be back in normal operation mode in September, starting with comedian Pete Davidson’s live show on Sept. 12.
Information regarding the Kirby Center and upcoming shows can be found at kirbycenter.org .
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