The second annual Franklin School District art collection fundraiser will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in the lobby of the Franklin High School auditorium.
The event is taking place in conjunction with the senior high school Christmas concert that is being held at 7 p.m. that evening in the auditorium.
The sale and auction items for the art fundraiser are all created by Franklin students and staff from the elementary and high schools, and the funds will go toward purchase of art pieces for the high school’s legacy art collection project, which was started last year.
“We have a little bit of everything,” said high school art teacher Darrellyn Freeman, who proposed the collection to the school board in 2022.
Last year’s art collection fundraiser raised more than $1,000.
The legacy project aims to build an in-house collection of art by local artists, with pieces selected and purchased by each year’s graduating seniors to be hung in the hallways along with previous years’ selections.
The project was based on a similar project started during the Great Depression by the Greater Latrobe School District, which has now accumulated a collection of more than 200 artworks, Freeman said last year.
Each piece also acts as a sort of “art time capsule” of each year, she said.
“It’s been a very positive experience with the kids and staff,” she said.
“If we raise enough funds, and depending on the cost of the artworks submitted, we would try to get two pieces again if possible,” Freeman said, “but if we just get one, that’s fine too.”
Call for artists
The school has put out a call for northwestern Pennsylvania artists, ages 18 and older, to submit pieces for consideration for the collection.
Seniors will anonymously select the year’s piece or pieces through student vote, purchase it from the artist, have it professionally framed, and hang it in the hallways of the high school.
The artwork must be two-dimensional and “representational of life in northwestern Pennsylvania,” according to the project guidelines, and possible categories include drawing, painting, photography, graphic design and printmaking.
Submissions must be appropriate for a K-12 setting and may be refused if deemed not to be so, the guidelines note.
The submission deadline is Jan. 31, and the artwork will be revealed to the community at the end of the school year.
