The Youth Ending Hunger (YEH) club announced students can gain community service hours by donating their art pieces to the club in an email sent March 19. The pieces will then be auctioned off to parents and faculty in the community, and all funds raised will benefit A Sense of Home, an organization that houses foster youth leaving the system. Any unsold pieces will be donated directly to A Sense of Home.

The donation is open until the end of spring break, and students can drop their works of art in the lower level of Feldman-Horn Studios. The club is accepting any form of visual art, including paintings, sculptures, photography and ceramics.

Club Co-Presidents Helen Graham ’21 and Will Lake ’21 said the student artist population’s high level of engagement with the community during the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the design of the auction.

Club Co-President Helen Graham ’21 said the idea of an art auction was sparked by the unique circumstances under COVID-19 restrictions.

“We came up with the idea because we had been doing research on how we could help while online or socially distancing,” Graham said. “I checked out an organization that I had worked with before called A Sense of Home that sets up housing for foster youth when they age out of the system.”

Club Co-President Will Lake ’21 said the engagement of the school’s artistic community inspired the club to host the auction.

“We thought [a student art auction] would be a great activity for YEH to hold at HW, especially considering how active and talented our student art community is,” Lake said. “I know that there are plenty of Wolverines that could have a lot to contribute.”

Izzie Ahn ’22 said the auction was an opportunity to give her artwork new purpose.

Club member Izzie Ahn ’22 said she hopes student artists will consider repurposing their artwork for charity.

“We’re doing this auction to raise money for a great organization,” Ahn said. “All the money we make will go to them along with the art pieces that do not sell. I think that this is a really good opportunity for artists to use their art pieces to help underprivileged people. While I can’t speak for other donors, I felt like I was going to throw out my pieces due to a lack of space, and this is so much better than that.”