Thieves put early end to student art exhibit

SANDPOINT – The Pend Oreille Arts Council’s annual Student Art Exhibit for middle and high schoolers turned out to be popular – especially among thieves.

Three pieces of artwork, including one by a seventh-grader, were taken from the exhibit, which closed two weeks early as a result.

“It’s just plain weird that anyone would steal student art,” said Kathe Murphy, a staff member at Lake Pend Oreille High School.

The drawings and paintings were taken on two days in March, said Carol Deaner, president of the council’s board of directors.

“It takes a real lack of morals to steal student art,” Linda Navarre, a teacher at Sandpoint Middle School, told the Bonner County Daily Bee.

The building where the exhibit was being held, The Old Power House, has surveillance cameras.

“We have captured images,” said Kim Brown, executive director for the arts council. “We are in the process of working with Sandpoint Police on this.”

Deaner said the group won’t seek to have charges brought if the art is returned.

“If they put it against our door, we won’t ask any questions,” Deaner said.

In the meantime, she plans to have the surveillance footage examined.

“As soon as those tapes are looked at, we will be able to identify them,” she said. “They will be given to the lab, and they will enhance them and can tell us.

“What we would like to really get across, if the people who took these will bring them back, we won’t pursue it,” she said. “If they don’t, then we will work with the evidence to identify who they are.”

A $250 reward for information leading to an arrest has also been offered by the owners of Towne and Country Mortgage, Bob and Debbie Dezell.

Students from Sandpoint Middle School, Sandpoint Charter School and high schools in Sandpoint, Priest River, Lake Pend Oreille and Bonners Ferry contributed art to the exhibit that was scheduled to run through April 16.

If a work of art sells, the student gets 80 percent, with the rest going toward art programs in their schools.

“This was the biggest show we’ve had,” Deaner said. “It was just wonderful.”