BRUNSWICK
Thanks to the hard work of over 100 volunteers, financial support from area businesses and restaurants, and artwork that sold like hotcakes, Arts Are Elementary’s 7th Annual 10×10 Art Exhibit and Sale was a success in every sense of the word. This year’s event featured 300 original works of art – all measuring 10 inches by 10 inches — by 150 Maine artists. Art sold for $200 each, with $100 going to the artist and $100 going to help support Arts Are Elementary’s 35 year-old elementary school artist residency programming. Over 30 area businesses helped to underwrite this year’s event and 11 area restaurants and eateries donated hors d’oeuvres and sweets to feed artists and patrons alike. The 10×10 Art Exhibit and Sale, AAE’s major annual fundraiser, has grown into an eagerly anticipated community event, with people lined up at each venue hours before the doors open, hoping for a shot at securing their favorite piece. Over 500 people came out to support Arts Are Elementary at this September event.
In a new twist, this year’s 10×10 featured the raffle of an original painting created and donated by local pediatrician, Dr. Will Wilkoff. Wilkoff ’s painting, “Pemaquid Bell House”, is a water-based acrylic gouache applied to a one-eighth inch Russian birch plywood panel and set in a handmade “floating” frame. AAE sold over 250 raffle tickets for the painting, and local personal genetics educator and mom to two elementary-aged kids, Dana Waring Bateman, came out the lucky winner. Says Wilkoff, “the 10×10 benefits a good cause and provides a rare opportunity for area artists to show their work.” Bateman credits Arts Are Elementary with her daughter’s new-found interest in songwriting and guitar playing, thanks to her third grade residency with Augusta singer/songwriter Martin Swinger last year.
Since 1980 Arts are Elementary has been bringing professional visual artists, writers and performers into the Brunswick elementary schools for in-depth artist residencies. Arts are Elementary ties its offerings directly to the Brunswick School Department curriculum, such that each residency enhances what teachers are already teachers and students are already learning. Arts are Elementary offers their programming free of charge to every kindergarten through fifth grade student in Brunswick. During its 35 years AAE has served more than 38,000 Brunswick students; offered scores of free concerts; facilitated student art exhibits; co-hosted Brunswick’s annual All Species Parade; and provided creative projects for families and community members alike.
For more information please contact Kristi Hatrick of Arts are Elementary at (207) 725-1232 or aaedirector@gmail.com or by visiting the AAE website at http://www.artsareelementary.org.
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