school auction art a lot of times can be very corny, or something you may not actually want to bid on / hang in your house. if you’re in charge of doing the auction art for your kids classroom this year, i thought a post of beautiful projects would be very helpful!

in this post i’m sharing 20+ ideas for school auction art that are actually beautiful, doable and people might start a bidding war over! i tried to find easy projects but there are a few more advanced ideas in here depending on your level of expertise/ambition!

wait, what is school auction art?

some schools host auctions towards the end of the year to raise money for the school. each classroom is typically responsible for creating one piece of art that other parents hopefully would like to bid on and win for themselves.

the best school auction art pieces i’ve seen don’t cost much to create and also don’t feel too personalized with each kid in the classroom represented. if you want to create something that fellow parents would want to actually keep in their house, then something more generalized will probably be the most popular.

the best projects incorporate or represent a piece of each kid in the class.

1. van Gogh inspired flower collages

these van Gogh style art pieces look pretty incredible. as a group, students painted the background in tempera paint with mixed colors and large brush strokes. the teacher printed out a copy of an original van Gogh painting, cut out the vase, and adhered it to the painted background. then each student created a flower using crayons and water colors. the stems are made from tissue paper. i love!!

2. a flower collage art print

this is so beautiful! have students cut out shapes with paper in coordinating colors. then use gloss medium with paintbrushes to create the flowers. design a vase, arrange the flowers, and then frame!

3. kids sharpie art plate set

these are so simple but would be so cute to sell as a set! they would make for some really fun kids’ dinnerware. i also love this idea of kids each drawing their own fruit on a plate and then auctioning it off as a set.

4. glass magnets with kids art

a small one but so easy and cute. and something you might actually use. you just cut up kids’ art to the size of the magnets and glue them on.

5. a beautiful serving tray

so pretty!! for this one, kids used liquid watercolors, liquid diffusing paper and pipettes to create the circles. you could also try using coffee filters. then use mod podge to adhere to the tray. if you didn’t want to do a tray you could turn this into an art print, too.

6. make a quilt out of kids artwork

okay this one is a little more advanced but it’s SO PRETTY i had to include. very detailed instructions here!

this one is also so beautiful and easier! i feel like these quilts could look so cute in a kids room! step by step instructions here.

7. story quilts inspired by Huguette Caland

if you’re not into the real quilts, you could try “story” quilts. these ones are in the style of Huguette Caland and are really beautiful. you can buy the project pdf here. you could have students color in different parts of the art and then frame, or have them create a few prints as a group for a really special series of art.

8. flower paintings inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe

these are individual art prints but how pretty are they?? you could sell as a set or have each kid paint one flower for a large scale print. or even turn into a calendar!

9. paper mosaic art

for this one you could have kids cut out different colors/patterns of paper and then have them assemble into interesting mosaic pieces.

10. turn kids art into a calendar

this would be really simple (and so useful!) — have kids each do a drawing for one of the months (or do two to a month if you have more kids in the class), then upload to a custom calendar online.

i’m a big fan of artifact uprising and minted calendars if you’re looking for beautiful designs, and if you want something simple, i’d go with zazzle!

11. large scale collaborative painting

this project was done with tempera paint on a large piece of craft paper but i think you could get a large canvas and have them do the same. this would be great for kids of any ages really!

12. a nature wind chime or mobile

it would be so sweet to have kids collect things from nature and press into clay. combine them together to make a unique wind chime/mobile. you could also have them paint the discs instead.

13. grid collages of kids’ artwork

this is an expensive version of this idea BUT you could definitely do a cheaper version inspired by her work by scanning kids’ artwork and creating a grid-based art print.

14. diy shell ornaments

okay i’m a little biased BUT i think it would be so cute to have kids each make some shell ornaments and auction them off together as a set! here’s the tutorial!

you could also do this idea as a vase instead of ornaments.

15. fingerprint art print

a simpler project but could be great for younger kids. you could also have them do something like this on a platter. very very cute, simple and looks beautiful!

16. painting inspired by Paul Klee

kids did their own individual art for this project but you could do a large-scale print and have each kid paint a square. or have them each do their own smaller piece and add them all together.

17. cutout print inspired by Matisse

have each kid cut out Matisse-inspired shapes in different colors then assemble together into a cool print!

18. watercolor school auction art

for my sons kindergarten school auction art, i had each kid do a watercolor painting and then cut them up into small leaves, creating this flowy rainbow pattern which i glued down to a piece of thick poster board. this one took me many hours, but i’m so happy with how it turned out.

and there was a bidding war! 🙂 i believe it went for over $600 !!!

19. checkerboard watercolor art

for my sons 1st grade class, again, i had each kid do a small watercolor painting, and then using a square puncher i created a unique rainbow checkerboard pattern. i glued onto a piece of poster board and framed. it took me very little time and it would look so cute in a playroom or bathroom.

20. tiny house collages

these beautiful collages are made by alexandra mathias! it would be so fun to have kids paint little houses like this and create a print inspired by their work. i’ve also seen similar projects done with butterflies and lots of other shapes!

i hope this helped inspire you if you’re in charge of creating the auction art for your childs school. and if there’s a bidding war, even better!!!