[Photo Gallery] April in Paris on the Auction Block [Video]

The works are stacked in the long, closet-like room just off from the studios on the second floor of . 

Paintings in oil, multimedia, watercolors, each donated by a professional artist from Belmont and as far as New York City, lay ready to be taken to the cafeteria where they will be hung and admired before being sold during Belmont High School's annual Arts Auction on Saturday, Dec. 17, beginning at 6 p.m.

Now in its eighth year, the arts auction brings 140 works from professional artists and 10 from students for sale.

Students will be providing music, charcoal sketches and food from restaurants throughout Belmont and surrounding towns for those attending. 

This year, junior Marina Massidda – who Mark Milowsky, the Belmont High School arts teacher who created and has led the school's Advanced Placement Studio Arts courses for the past 11 years, calls one of the most "confident, impressive artist" to have come through his class – will be joined by her grandmother, Mary, displaying at the auction.

For Milowsky, the auction is more than just a way to pay to provide his AP class to spend a week in Paris.

"This is about learning and experiencing and living," said Milowsky. 

And it is a special group of students who will be taking their spring break in France. The 26 students in Milowsky's AP class must audition to be accepted, going before the current class for their approval. This establishes a comradery among the students where "they think of themselves and call themselves a family," said Milowsky. 

The atmosphere of hard work and competition has resulted in Belmont to dominate the annual Scholastic Arts competition held by the Boston Globe and see arts school recruiters trek to the school. 

Milowsky said that the trip to Paris isn't just about sightseeing but providing "the hardest working class in the school" an opportunity to experience the city "because I know that they will understand the importance of being able to be there." 

"I tell them that a trip to Paris is to walk in the footsteps of the great artists," said Milowsky, traveling to where Monet and van Gogh painted, visiting the museums and viewing the city that inspired artist from around the world.

What impresses Milowsky is that each class that he has brought "are sketching throughout the trip, getting ideas and bringing it back with them." 

And the trip has pushed his students to explore what they have and will create, for many, injecting a depth into their works.

"You see that they bring this experience back with them," said Milowsky.