FARMINGTON – For Timothy Berry, art is not something to simply hang on a gallery wall but something for people to interact with.

The University of Maine at Farmington art major decided to create a “spectacle” to get people’s attention and help the community as part of his senior art project.

He’ll spend 24 hours – from 1 p.m. Wednesday to 1 p.m. Thursday – riding a seesaw, balanced by a couple of sand bags, on the green outside Mantor Library on the UMF campus.

The performance/endurance event is designed to raise awareness of the arts.

But there’s more.

Berry will collect food for the local pantry and will take pledges to raise money for Operation Keep ME Warm.

All of this will be done while he’s dressed in drag – as Marie Antoinette in a hunter-orange dress.

Why Antoinette?

“She was a little over the top … like what I’m doing,” Berry said. Her famous words, “Let them eat cake,” seemed an appropriate pun for an act to raise food for the food closet, he said.

He said the dress seemed timely for Maine hunting season and he could raise gender issues through his art.

He wondered: If people are uncomfortable with the spectacle or the dress, will they still make donations?

He considers the project performance art, in which he can be himself as an artist interacting in real life.

Members of his senior seminar art class will keep him company throughout the night, predicted to be rather cold. The 22-year-old Orono native says the dress is quite large with room for undergarments and he’ll take regular breaks throughout the event.

A large box will be set near the teeter-totter for donations of nonperishable food. The goal is to fill the box in 24 hours. Thanksgiving is coming, he said, asking community members to help.

Along with the food, Berry is accepting pledges of any amount per hour to help Mainers facing high oil prices this winter. A pledge sheet and a collection jar will be available at the site or pledges may be e-mailed to: [email protected].