Marianna High School holds annual art auction

JACKSON COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - For many students, art is their creative outlet.

“When I’m doing it, I can’t really think about anything else, so it kind of keeps me, I don’t know, very focused,” Elizabeth Baggett said. “Then, also I’m proud of what I produce from it.”

“It’s just something creative that kind of gets your brain working,” Gracie Speers said. “It’s fun but it also makes you think a lot.”

After a year full of working on their art, Marianna High School art students are showcasing their talents and selling their work at the annual auction.

“We put all of it on display, people come look at it and bid on it,” Art Teacher Jerri Benton said. “The money that we get we use to buy art supplies for the future years.”

However, the supplies needed to create art is expensive, and the auction is the program’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Between two and eight thousand dollars can be raised at the auction each year, but the art program is priceless to students who participate.

“Students who love art need this,” Benton said. “They need a place they can come every day, look forward to coming, and know that they’re going to grow and advance in their skills so, if they choose to, they can do more with their art.”

One student is already excelling on a state level.

“I did this for beta competition and it won, and I submitted it for Congressional Art, too and it won,” Baggett said.

That means Baggett was one of a few students chosen in the state to have her artwork hang in the Capitol in Washington D.C for one year.

For students like Baggett and Speers, the art auction brings them a sense of pride in their work, as well as the funding needed to keep their program going.

The auction is set up in the Marianna High School Library and is open to the community for bids until the end of the day Thursday.

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