Minnesota's International Owl Center is auctioning its collection of artwork by Ukrainian kids — depicting owls of all kinds, from a technicolor flock to a finger-painted owlet — to benefit children in the war-torn country.
"Here's this sweet, innocent, colorful, beautiful, fun artwork made by children in Ukraine themselves. It gives people something really tangible to connect them with the kids over there," center executive director Karla Bloem said.
"But you look at the name and you go, 'How is that child doing?' "
The educational center in Houston, Minn., has accumulated thousands of renditions of owls drawn and painted by children from around the world. Each year, more than 2,000 children mail in their entries to the International Kids' Owl Art Contest, competing to win top honors and be celebrated at the center's springtime International Festival of Owls.
Ukraine is one of many countries where the contest is popular among young artists. The center has more than 300 pieces of art from Ukraine. Once submitted, the artwork often ends up on the center's greeting cards and T-shirts, and in benefit auctions.
Bloem said she was recently thinking about all of the Ukrainian children who have sent in their owl artwork over the years and wondering how they were doing since the Russian invasion. She said she wanted to do something to help them.
Last month, she posted some of the art by Ukrainian and Russian children to the center's Facebook page.
"We appreciate their innocence, creativity, talent and love of owls," she wrote on the page. "Many years, including this year, some children have to overcome civil unrest, war, and politics between our countries to get their artwork to us to display for the world to see. What we thought was simply a kids' art contest has turned into a lesson in world politics for us. Bless the children who share their hearts and art with us despite it all."
The post got dozens of comments from people who shared their concerns and prayers. Some asked if they could buy prints of the drawings and have the proceeds somehow benefit Ukraine somehow.
"People were really, really moved," Bloem said.
So she came up with a plan to auction some of the Ukrainian pieces in the center's collection and donate all proceeds to UNICEF for its work with children in Ukraine.
"We wanted something specifically to go toward helping children," Bloem said.
With assistance from the Houston Area Community Foundation, Bloem and her staff set up an online auction. The first batch of 59 pieces went live Wednesday (at https://one.bidpal.net/ukrart4ukrkids/welcome). It includes vibrant paintings and pen and pencil drawings of owls by Ukrainian children ages 5-17. In less than 12 hours, the auction raised $6,000, and bidding is still going on.
Bloem said she hopes the auction, which will close Sunday, will be the first of many.
When the fundraising ends, Bloem said she hopes to contact as many of the young Ukrainian artists as possible.
"We will let the children know that their art was part of this, and how much money we raised," she said.
