The Mount Vernon Middle School (MVMS) Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) Fourth Annual Mustang Art Auction is live and open to bidders at 32auctions.com/MustangArtAuction2022 this week.
The online art auction features 38 pieces created by middle school students and local Mount Vernon artists. As chair of the auction this year, MVMS parent and PTO member Lesley Panos organized the event and worked with local artists and students to get a variety of entries. Panos says she enjoyed watching students generate their ideas and put them in motion on the wooden mustang silhouettes.
“The pieces are really great. You could mistake some of the work by student artists for the work of (an adult) guest artist,” said Panos. “The craftmanship and creativity is so accomplished.”
Panos says bidders will see new ideas, interpretations and techniques used on pieces – including collage methods and artwork created on both sides of the wood mustang silhouette.
The event’s primary sponsor, Gordon Lumber Company, again generously donated all of the wood for the mustang silhouettes. Benjamin Kuker and students in high school industrial tech classes cut out the pieces. Some of the pieces created by middle school students were worked on during Art Club with the guidance of MVMS Art Teacher Andrea Campbell who also helped with the online auction.
“The themes they chose for each mustang were unique and made thoughtfully,” observed Campbell. “I am so proud of them for making amazing artwork that they would be ecstatic to display at home, but instead give them to the auction to raise money for the PTO.”
The MVMS PTO created the event during the 2018-19 school year to highlight the artistic talents of middle school students and better engage the greater Mount Vernon Community. The group says they wanted an event that was unlike other fundraisers in the district. Funds raised from the online auction will support programs and activities at the middle school. For example, the PTO helped the middle school art department purchase a new kiln this past year.
Parents and community members are encouraged to bid on any of the pieces up for auction. The live online auction runs through 10:00 p.m. on Monday, May 16th and is open to the public.
Bidders must be at least 18 years old to participate in the auction.
Mia and Josie Panos work on a piece for the 2022 Mustang Art Auction at home.