BETHEL – Seventeen hand-painted, locally crafted ARTirondak chairs will be auctioned off at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 18, during Mollyockett Days, to benefit K-12 arts education in western Maine.

The auction will take place at the bandstand,  where the hand-painted cedar chairs with images of lighthouses, moose, trout, chickadees, gemstones, mountains, flying birds and more will be awarded to the highest bidder.

A preview of the chairs and meet-and-greet with the chair artists will be held at the Mahoosuc Arts Council booth on the common from 11:30 to 12:30 p.m.

Some chairs raise enough funding to bring a whole program into one of the schools.

At 4 p.m. Saturday, there will also be a drawing for a honeybee-themed chair painted by Kyra Suwak of Bethel.

Anyone unable to attend the auction but wishing to place a bid may submit a “left bid” by calling the Mahoosuc Arts Council’s Executive Director Aranka Matolcsy at 207-824-3575. Bidders must  provide contact information, name of the chair and the dollar amount of the bid. The bid will be included in the live auction process. 

Live phone bids will also be accepted. To register for live phone bidding contact the council via phone or email. To view the all the chairs visit the website at www.mahoosucarts.org, [email protected]. FMI call 207-824-3575.