Auburn Elementary combines Festival of the Arts with Empty Bowls Night

Auburn Elementary in Avondale School District combined all things art with an Empty Bowls night to raise money for Gleaners Community Food Bank. The estimated 400 attendees of the Festival of Fine Arts were treated to dinner and encouraged to take home a hand-crafted, student-painted ceramic bowl as a reminder of the event.

Student artwork, highlighting culture from around the world as well as art history lessons, lined the halls of the school. In addition to the 3,000 pieces on display, Artome’, a company specializing in working with schools to provide a meaningful art show experience, professionally matted and framed one piece of art from every student. The framed pieces were on display and available for purchase to support the Auburn Elementary Art Department.

“We really wanted to make it a fun and memorable evening for the students,” said Avondale Art teacher and co-organizer of the event, Kelley Folger. “We planned activities with that in mind, including a scavenger hunt where the students had to visit specific areas of the show and fill in an answer sheet of art trivia.” Another highlight of the art show was the appearance of some of the artists the students learned about throughout the school year, including Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Volunteers, dressed as the famous artists, gave out autographs and posed for pictures.

The Empty Bowls dinner raised almost $600 for Gleaners Food Bank. By working with community partners including Oakland University, Zoup!, Hollywood Market, Costco, Kruse and Muer, and Sweets!, organizers were able to designate all of the money received from ticket sales for donation to Gleaners. Folger is quick to point out that the partnerships are what made the evening such a success. “Gleaners model is to use 94 cents from every dollar they receive for food and food programs. Our amazing partnerships, including our solid association with Oakland University, made it possible for us to send all of the money we collected at the dinner on to help feed families in our community. Oakland University students and staff all pitched in to ensure that our goals for the evening were met. We also appreciate all of the donations from area grocers and restaurants – we couldn’t have done it without them.”

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