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Art Students Donate Artworks and Time to Help Charities and Spread Awareness

Date: August 17, 2011

This year, thousands braved the heat at the Annual Downtown Sidewalk Sale in Lawrence on July 21. Among those who attended were members of a University of Kansas student organization called Doodle, the student chapter of the National Art Education Association on campus.

Set up in front of the Central National Bank at Eighth and Massachusetts Streets, Doodle co-presidents Alyssa Passmore and Heidi Wetzel and treasurer Taylor Newman sold local works of art to downtown patrons, but not for themselves. All are students in the KU School of the Arts.

“We raised $470 for Habitat for Humanity,” reflected Passmore, “and we sold over 150 pieces of art out of the approximately 200 pieces collected.”

The art was collected from KU art students, Lawrence residents, and high school students during finals week in the spring of 2011. The sale gives students and the community a chance to help raise money for a good cause while providing a second life for their works of art. Doodle’s original idea was to collect the art and donate it to Habitat for Humanity for use inside the homes that they build, but eventually the students decided that selling the art and donating the proceeds would be more effective.

Doodle’s first art sale took place in July 2010 outside the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, where they raised $215 and sold more than 50 pieces of art. The members also hosted a Valentine’s Day Card Sale in February 2010 in the Kansas Union, where they sold 75 cards and made $150 for their own organization. They plan to have a similar card sale in February 2012.

The 15 members of Doodle do more than raise money, though. In May 2010, they helped Pinckney Elementary School create their annual indoor mural by serving as both designers and assistants to the students. A similar project is in the works for Lawrence High School, and is tentatively scheduled to take place later this fall.

Members of Doodle have also attended several national and regional events as a group, including the National Art Education Association Annual Conference in Seattle in March 2011 and the Kansas Art Education Association Annual Conference in Manhattan in October 2010. Also, the group heads to downtown Lawrence for the Final Fridays gallery walks once per semester.

All of these events, murals, and fundraisers serve as catalysts for Doodle’s main goal: to raise awareness.

“Our purpose as the Visual Art Education chapter is to raise awareness about our field, aid professional development and enrich the community with volunteer work,” Wetzel said. “We are open to any students interested in bettering the lives of children through the arts.”

The fundraisers that Doodle organizes are helpful because they create direct contact between group members and the people to whom they want to spread their message.

“The sale not only provided us with an opportunity to spread love and advocacy for arts in the community, but also allowed Doodle a platform to show how important and how powerful art can be in the Lawrence community,” Wetzel said. “The sale also allowed us to engage in many conversations with local artists, patrons, enthusiasts and humanitarians that wanted to know more about the cause and our student group.”

Many of Doodle’s members are majoring in Visual Art Education in the School of the Arts. The program offers both graduate and undergraduate degrees for students interested in teaching art in settings such as schools, museums, and recreation centers. Other members in the group are pursuing art degrees in areas such as photomedia, painting, and textiles. Regardless of what each individual is studying, they all have the same desire: spreading the message about the importance of art in society today.

For more information about Doodle, check out their website, http://kudoodle.tumblr.com, or follow them on Twitter, https://twitter.com/kudoodle.

- Written by Alix Rieman, CLAS Dean’s Office student assistant and senior in History of Art.