FARMINGTON – Area kids will have the opportunity to make history this summer by creating works of art to be auctioned in August by the Franklin Community Health Network.
In an attempt to raise $25,000 to put toward a new mobile health unit, FCHN is holding an auction and dinner on Aug. 24. Pieces from this summer’s and last summer’s art programs will be auctioned, as well as a model of the Taj Mahal and some jungle-themed cars.
One winner will also find a sapphire in his or her champagne flute, says FCHN representative and art teacher Natashia Hargreaves.
Hargreaves, who teaches FCHN’s annual free summer art program, said if last year’s projects were any indication, the artwork at the auction will be “surprising.”
Heading into last summer’s camp, “I was thinking this is going to be children’s artwork,” she said. “But the artwork that was produced was far beyond the years of these children. They were a really talented group.”
Youths ages 8 to 15 are invited to attend this summer’s program, which like last year will be themed on Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book” and other stories. The program runs from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., and after listening to a story and “collecting their thoughts, using their sketchbooks,” they’ll be unleashed to make masks, paintings and collages.
Hargreaves said she “always find(s) one-on-one time with everyone. I want them to be able to express what they want,” she said. Schooled in art at the University of Maine at Augusta and the University of Maine at Farmington, the college student said she plans to give the youths “guidance, but without a lot of boundaries.”
FCHN representative Catharine Merrow said she and Hargreaves are soliciting donations of 2- by 3-foot stretched canvases for use by students.
People with questions about either the camps or the auction may phone 779-2750 and ask for Natashia or Catharine. The camp is scheduled to begin June 19. For the first two weeks, it will be run in UMF’s Merrill Hall. For the second two weeks, it will be run at the Rangeley Public Library. Sessions are free and open to children ages 8 through 15.
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