The skateboarding and art community in Fort Collins came together Sept. 19 at the Center for Creativity for the reception of the All Hands on Deck charity gallery.

Launch Skate, a local nonprofit, hosted the fundraiser to celebrate its 15th anniversary of encouraging youth engagement in skateboarding.

Launch hosts hands-on workshops, skating lessons, summer camps and after-school clubs to promote physical activity and experiential learning. Additionally, Launch has distributed free skateboards and decks to Fort Collins youth to provide kids with the opportunity to skate.

The All Hands on Deck fundraiser has been a yearly event for Launch since its founding. Each year, the organization sends dozens of blank skateboard decks to local artists, who in turn use each deck to create an original piece of art to be auctioned off, with all of the proceeds benefiting Launch and its mission. 

“We’ve seen other fundraisers where group shows would come in and everybody would get a similar canvas size or something to paint, and we were, like, let’s do skateboards for our show,” Founder and Executive Director Andy Weiss said. “It makes more sense, you know.”

The final boards up for auction represent a wide range of art styles, techniques and subjects. When the artists are given the boards, they are given complete creative freedom.

“We have 70 artists, mostly local,” Weiss said. “So there’s, like, quite a different spectrum of different artists’ styles. And what’s really cool is we give the board to the artist (and) we kind of let them do what they want with it. We get the boards back, so they kind of donate their artistic, you know, creative energy into these boards.” 

The reception was full of community members admiring the art and making bids. Many of the artists were also in attendance. 

“It’s a really cool opportunity, especially this year, I feel like all the boards are, like, extra good,” said TJ Norris, local illustrator who designed a board for the auction. “I just feel thankful to be included in the artists of this caliber. It’s like really fun to do something that supports a cool organization in Fort Collins. I really like what Launch does. I think they’re a really cool organization and do a lot of cool things for kids.”

This year was special for All Hands on Deck, as this is the most decks they have ever had available for auction. This was also their first time in a dedicated gallery space. In years past, the event was hosted by The Lyric and Odell Brewing Company.

“We have 70 boards this year,” said Chris Jones, the art curator for the event. “We usually average, like, 50 (to) 60 — I would say 60 is usually the average — but since we have the space we were, like, we can do more.”

Jones represents a connection between Launch and the local art community, which has made him a key piece of putting together the fundraiser each year. Jones also works at Wolverine Farm Publick House, a local literary and arts hub out of which he runs Sweet Malarkey, a printmaking studio. This has allowed him to make connections with many local artists.

“I’m, like, constantly meeting people through the Publick House, or I’m meeting people through my print studio,” Jones said. “There’s all sorts of different ways that we connect with artists. There’s also, like, a lot of artists that have been doing this show, doing a board for the show, almost since the start. So we kind of have, like, this built in sort of library and archive of artists that we can keep coming back to that are really excited to be a part of the show every year.”

The All Hands on Deck fundraiser, as a charity supporting skateboarding, attracted artists with deep ties to the sport.

“I grew up skating in Fort Collins,” said Randy Van Winkle, contributing artist and close friend of Andy Weiss. “I helped build Fort Skate, the first skate park in town, and skated there when it was open. Skated all my life up until my late 40s. … I’ve been doing the art show for about five years. I’m always happy to, you know, donate a little of my time and be able to present my work alongside (the other artists). They always have really great artists. I always feel honored to be in the space with this kind of talent they bring in.”

This event might seem like just an intersection between the arts and a sport, but if you ask Andy Weiss, he sees it a little differently.

“I personally always thought of skateboarding more as an art form than a sport anyway,” said Weiss, noting the vast differences in people’s skating and varying styles. “There are no rules as far as what tricks you want to do, how you want to do them (or) what board you want to ride, and that’s a beautiful thing. … Even though it’s an art show, like, there is a lot of almost mirroring of what skateboarding is because you have all of these people that have the same board, but they’re doing a different trick on the same board. They’re different — (it’s) their own style of art and I feel that skateboarding is kind of the same way.” 

Reach David Martinez at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.