Book sale helps Huntington Museum of Art meet fundraising goal

The Huntington Museum of Art achieved its fundraising goal of $12,000 after last weekend’s annual book sale.

The book sale, Macy’s Presents Hilltop: Books Only, is a main fundraiser for the Huntington Museum of Art. The fundraiser collects thousands of used book donations and sells them to the public for $1, $2, and $3 on Saturday. The public can fill a bag or box with books for $5 and $10, respectively, on Sunday.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Chris Hatten, senior curator at the museum said. “For the price of one new book — what it would cost you in a book store — you can get ten used ones.”

The sale originated in the 1980s at a local radio station that wanted to do a fundraiser with the museum. The Huntington Museum of Art took the fundraiser over and it has been conducted there ever since.

“The impressive thing is that every year we get rid of every book at the end of the sale. We don’t keep any of them and each year we come up with 10,000 to 15,000 books to sell again,” Hatten said. “This year, at least in the fiction part, we had more than we have ever had.”

The books leftover are given away for free after the event and donated to facilities like Goodwill.

Upcoming events at the museum are mostly exhibit related. There is a new exhibit of cameo glass by Kelsey Murphy that is coming in October. Currently, there are several shows up that the public can observe, including works from a West Virginia artist, Edith Lake Wilkinson.

More information about the Huntington Museum of Art can be found at their website at https://www.hmoa.org/ or by phone at (304) 529-2701.

Krislyn Holden can be contacted at [email protected].