The Honors College’s FOCUS program is taking its Art Serving Art fundraiser to campus for the first time ever.
The fundraiser, which is normally held at the Shaw Center for the Arts, migrated to the Grand Salon of the French House on Tuesday and will remain until Friday.
The FOCUS program runs in the summer, providing a creative outlet for Louisiana high school students with workshops on subjects like poetry, music, science and nutrition. Group and seminar leaders are trained in an honors seminar class offered in spring semesters.
FOCUS member London Maust said the class teaches different types of education, ending up with a curriculum for the summer program. Psychology freshman Maust is a group leader and will lead the science and nutrition workshops.
“I’m most excited about meeting the kids,” Maust, who has been a camp counselor at different camps for the past three summers, said.
The FOCUS directors of development, English and political science junior Kalena Thomhave and English junior Megan Dunbar, organized the fundraiser, which depended on donations of artwork from the community.
Thomhave said persistence is the secret to finding donations. Along with work from several University students and having a local band play, she said she even managed to get donations from as far away as New Hampshire.
Graphic design and art history junior Kim Allen donated multiple works to the fundraiser, including a pen-and-ink wash portrait called “The Stranger.”
This was Allen’s first venture in philanthropy and first attempt to sell her work.
“I thought it was a good way to get my work out there,” Allen said.
Another student, pre-art freshman Bridgette Hogan, donated the first project from her sculpture class, called “I Knew You Were Trouble.” Hogan said the piece was inspired by the Taylor Swift song, and every shape in it represents a beat in the chorus.
This was also Hogan’s first work to be sold and philanthropic activity.
In addition to gathering donations from local and far-off art communities, members of FOCUS contributed the fruit of crafting days, like Dunbar’s bottle cap charms and earrings.
Education professor and FOCUS instructor Teresa Buchanan contributed a handmade lap rug in LSU colors. Buchanan said the money raised by the event will be used to make the summer program “a powerful and enjoyable learning experience for our FOCUS high school students.”
FOCUS will continue selling donated artwork until Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m, in Room 213 of the French House.
