Hundreds of people came together Sunday at Washburn University's Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center to remember Robert E. Ault, a local artist and art therapist.

Ault was born and raised in Corpus Christi, TX, earning a BFA degree from the University of Texas. He then came to Kansas where he earned a Master's in Fine Arts at Wichita University. He moved to Topeka "temporarily" with his wife. He contributed and particpated in the community that became his lifelong home.

He worked as an art therapist at the Menninger foundation for more than 30 years. He then opened his own place...Ault's academy of art in Topeka in 1973 and helped start the art therapy association of America.

"It seems like something that he would have really loved..all these people that hereally cared about coming together," says Gabrielle Ault-Riche, Bob's granddaughter, regarding the memorial service.

Dana Ault, Bob's son says, "I live in San Francisco now and it's very different from Topeka and one of the things I was certainly struck by when I came back to Topeka was the wonderful community of loving people that are here. It was very nice for my father to be here for so long and touch so many different lives here in Topeka. As he was sick and after he passed neighbors came by as well as many other people. You don't get that in San Francisco. One of the things that he wanted to bring to the community of Topeka was a real love for art not just art as in the appreciation of art, looking at objects but doing art. He was a big advocate of the fact that you didn't need to be an artist to do art. The process of doing ..of being creative was open to everybody and he was a great messenger for that in the work that he did in his studio and the different lives that he touched."

Ault's words about art and life will be captured forever.

Ault's Academy of Art
923 SW Fairlawn Rd.
Topeka, KS 66606