Local celebrities try out their artistic side for a good cause

MARQUETTE — Artists who are not normally artists put their own work up for auction Thursday night with the proceeds going to a very worthwhile cause.

The Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum hosted its 13th Annual Celebrity Auction at the museum. Friends and family got together to bid on the art work, that was created by people ranging from real estate agents to doctors. Some of the items up for bid included paintings made out of herbs and even painted wine glasses.

“Often times these people absolutely surprise us and they come up with something like oh my goodness, like a completely re-purposed chair,” Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum Director, Nheena Weyer Ittner said.  ”I mean there’s one person that’s a celebrity and they created a whole beverage cart. And so sometimes they’ll do actually like painting art pieces and sometimes they’ll do a service for instance a dinner for eight.”

“Oh my first reaction was like yes I’m so excited what am I going to do,” celebrity artist Bethany Vaughn said. “And then I knew I wanted to do something that’s going to raise a lot of money for the Children’s Museum.”

All of the proceeds tonight go the museum. Last year’s event raised $20,000. Ittner says the museum was made by the community and survives by it.