Arts and Events Management students from Arts University College Bournemouth organised a charity art auction, raising money for the children’s hospice Julia’s House.
20 works from local artists themed “child and child’s memory” were donated to the auction; with reserves on the paintings ranging from £30 to £200.
The artwork was previously exhibited online to generate interest in the auction, held at the Pavilion on Saturday.
But only two of the fifteen paintings were sold, “Big Sister” by Debbie Aldous and ‘Palm Sunday” by Cara Rainbow selling for £50 and £30 respectively.
In response an online auction for the artwork is in the pipeline, to continue to raising funds for the charity.
Amelia Knowlson, who organised the auction said: “We discovered that Julia’s House has lost a lot of money in the past years, the funding and resources has been cut. We think it is a really worthy cause to pursue.”
She also explained that the concept of the “memory of childhood” came from the fact the Julia’s House is a local hospice to take care of disabled children.
[jwplayer config=”Custom Player” mediaid=”19649″]The hospice receives a small amount funding from the government up to 3% of the overall money they get; it rises to 10% this year. The majority of the hospice’s income is from Dorset communities, either groups like Rotary or sports clubs or small business and individual as well as charity shops.
Sue Miles, the Community Fundraiser said: “We are very lucky to have local groups to support us to raise the money we desperately need.”
Facing the economic downturn, the hospice is lack of money to continue offering therapies and its end-of-life care to seriously ill children and their families across the whole county.
Julia’s House failed to achieved its goal to raise £2.8m last year. And was £200,000 below its target up to 6-8 weeks ago, but they are expecting a better final two months. This year they plan to raise £2.7m.
