“When I walked into the garage where the pieces were being stored, I thought, these are such beautiful pieces, says Kate Kaufman, operations director at the Denver Central Market. I was like, this isn’t right. It shouldn’t be stored in a garage. It should be out there where people can see it.
She was particularly taken with Lio Bumbakini’s mural “Still I Rise.” The black curvilinear shapes depict a person posing in water, one hand clasping a foot.
Kaufman reached out to Bumbakini and other local artists, who agreed that they wanted to auction their art and donate the proceeds to a local charity.