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When longtime local artist Mary Levingston sent out a call for auction donations in October, she tried to remind members of the Steamboat Springs Arts Council what the organization has done with its home at the Depot Art Center in the past three decades.

It's "all for the visual artists and members of the Arts Council to raise funds for the Depot because it's always been here for us through the years," Levingston said, hanging auction items with fellow SSAC Visual Arts Committee member Cher Dooley on Wednesday afternoon.

The Visual Arts Committee's call for art brought in about 50 donations from about 50 artists. That work opens for early viewing and bidding from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Depot Art Center. The selection includes paintings, photos, glasswork, fabric art and pottery.

Bidding will be open for three weeks. An event at 6 p.m. Nov. 21 at the Depot ends the Arts Council's second art auction and includes music by Trevor G. Potter, a live auction, food and a cash bar, said Rachel Radetsky, events and facilities manager for the Arts Council.

"We started it last year with the anticipation with the cuts we were going to receive in city funding. It turned out to be a really great event and also another opportunity for our artists to exhibit their work here at the Depot," Radetsky said.

In its first year, the event brought in $4,000 to $5,000 and attracted about 40 people, Radetsky said. She hopes the Nov. 21 event, which is free for the first time, brings in at least as much money and a larger crowd, she said.

Event organizers asked artists to donate at least 60 percent of their auction proceeds to the Arts Council. Several contributing artists chose to donate 70 to 100 percent.

The auction fundraiser comes in the midst of the Arts Council's "Century Club" campaign to raise $100,000. Half of that will go toward Arts Council programming, and the other half will go into the nonprofit organization's endowment at the Yampa Valley Community Foundation. The effort is going well, and the Arts Council has "a good amount to go" toward its goal, Radetsky said. Fundraising will go through August 2010, she said.