The fourth gala art auction of the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts is just a month away – and it's time to get your ticket. Starting immediately, people may purchase tickets in person or via the mail. The benefit – featuring gourmet food, open bars, silent art auctions, and dancing to music by The Catalinas – will be held at the LCVA on Saturday, February 26, from 7 p.m. to midnight. Tickets for this black-tie event are $80 per person.

Proceeds from the gala will support the LCVA's educational programs for both adults and schoolchildren in ten counties. The LCVA is committed to improving the quality of life in the region by providing full access to the visual arts and to the ways art exemplifies beauty, hope, and the power of human imagination.

This year's theme is the Party of the Centuries, reminding us all that at the LCVA, art is always the life of the party. Guests at the gala will travel through a live history of art with models and artists recreating masterpieces. Join us, and take a walk along the Seine River in Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Stand alongside the husband and wife in Grant Wood's American Gothic. Hang out with hipster Andy Warhol and experience pop art from the 1960s. These live artworks symbolize the LCVA's mission to encourage art, from every century, in our everyday lives. Works of art are essential records of human history and can influence and enrich every aspect of living.

Featured art for the silent auction will include hand-selected original works ranging from fine crafts (jewelry, glass, pottery, quilts, silks, etc.) to fine art (limited- edition prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures and paintings). Works will range in value from $50 to $4,000.

To learn more about the gala, please call Ann Dowdy, Assistant Program Manager, at 434-395-2551 or visit the LCVA's web site at http://www.longwood.edu/lcva/. To purchase tickets, please visit the LCVA's administrative office (Third Street entrance) in downtown Farmville during office hours, Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5p.m. Or mail a check in the appropriate amount to LCVA Gala, 129 N. Main Street, Farmville, VA 23901.