Decorative chairs line downtown Mount Pleasant for Art Reach’s 2011 Chair Affair

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Colorful banners and sidewalk art across the streets of downtown Mount Pleasant will soon be complemented by creatively painted chairs, benches and writing desks.

Chair Affair 2011, a silent auction by Art Reach of Mid Michigan, 111 E. Broadway St., began Monday and will last until July 23. Bidding and voting for the furniture can be done at the Art Reach Gift Shop.

(Amelia Eramya/Lead Designer)

Forty-four artists are participating this year, including some from 11 area schools.

Andi Hofmeister said the Chair Affair is a unique challenge.

“What do you do with a canvas full of holes?” she said.

Hofmeister, a Mount Pleasant resident and retired musician, painted a bench for this year’s auction.

Her bench is titled “Cherry Blossoms” and is sky blue with the titular flowers as well as a branch that comes out at viewers, she said.

“It’s a rather bright bench,” Hofmeister said.

The furniture sells for anywhere from $50 to $400, but some artists are known in the community and can sell for much more, said Kim Bigard, Art Reach gift shop and gallery coordinator.

The People’s Choice award winner gets $100. Prizes for first, second and third place are also given to student participants for $100, $75 and $50, she said.

Paula Clark Nettleton, director of the CMU Educational Materials Center, won the People’s Choice Award for the past two years. Her chair this year is called “Bird’s Eye View.”

“The seat looks like you are looking down on the rainforest,” she said.

Her chair is on the auction, but not in competition this year.

The chairs and benches were built by CMU engineering and technology students and area builders, according to the Art Reach website.

Hofmeister said she participates in all three of Art Reach’s summer events, including the sidewalk art and banner displays.

Nettleton said the events bring people downtown.

“(Art Reach does a) fabulous job,” she said. “The day of the auction is fun for everyone with the banners flying, sidewalks covered in chalk, jazz music playing and the chairs all together.”