Three seniors at Greenwich High School started a novel club last year.
The “Art for Awareness Club” was born when club president, Boris Ardemasov, thought a silent auction of artwork would be a fun way to raise money for charity.
“The idea has really taken off,” said club member Thomas Rouffiac.
“Club vice president Aidan Brock has been pouring time into this project,” Boris said. “Despite a very busy academic schedule and college applications, he has made fliers, organized parts of the website and done a lot of community outreach.
Club members have contacted artists and arranged their event at Round Hill Community Center, where they will auction off artworks and donate the proceeds to charity.
“The whole point is to gather up local artists mostly from Connecticut and New York state,” Thomas explained.
The club will donate proceeds of the silent auction to Neighbor to Neighbor.
“Paintings will go to the highest bidder. It’s all for charity. Anyone can come,” Thomas said. “We have a lot of artists coming – already about 10-15. There will be a lot of art and we hope to raise at least a $10,000.”
Thomas said Neighbor to Neighbor is near and dear to the club members’ hearts.
“We chose Neighbor to Neighbor because we have volunteered there for years,” Thomas said. “We volunteered there after school during middle school at CMS and EMS. We’d organized the food donations brought in and help the clients when they came in. We also organized clothing donations. Now we sometimes volunteer on weekends.”
“It’s a charity we love a lot and we just want to give back to them even more when we see all the amazing work that they do,” Thomas said.
The timing of the fundraiser is ideal, because the food pantry inventory tends to be lower prior to the holiday food drives.
As for the silent art auction, some club members are artists themselves and have connected with area artists through various art shows.
“One or two of the kids in our club are artists who are really talented and will be presenting their art too,” Thomas said.
The artworks range from standard oil paintings to more abstract pieces of art.
“Some are landscapes,” Thomas said. “One artist specializes in paintings of Tod’s Point.”
There will also be a chance to bid on a portrait by a portrait artist.
“There’s a bunch of different styles,” he said. “There are also pieces of ink art.”
The event is Saturday, Oct 13, 2018 at the Round Hill Community Center beginning at 6:00pm.
There is a fee of $10 to attend the event.
The auction website has a lists of artists and a peek at their work.
Check out the event website here.
https://ghsart4awareness.wixsite.com/website/the-artists