The Bel­mont Fundrais­ing Com­mit­tee is seek­ing sup­port for this week’s on­line art auc­tion in aid of the restora­tion of the St Fran­cis of As­sisi RC Church.

Lo­cat­ed at Cir­cu­lar Road, Bel­mont, the church is eas­i­ly recog­nised as a pil­lar of his­toric sig­nif­i­cance in the com­mu­ni­ty.

The church was list­ed as a her­itage site by the Na­tion­al Trust in 2019 but there needs to be ex­ten­sive work on the build­ing in ac­cor­dance with the guide­lines of the Na­tion­al Trust.

Ac­cord­ing to St Fran­cis Build­ing Com­mit­tee mem­ber Jose Nivet, the church has not been used for 12 years due to its state of dis­re­pair.

“The scope of work for phase two is cur­rent­ly be­ing done. Though it has not been com­plet­ed, we un­der­stand it is go­ing to be up­wards of $6 mil­lion,” Nivet told Guardian Me­dia.

Af­ter host­ing a suc­cess­ful fundrais­ing gala ear­li­er this year, the Bel­mont Fundrais­ing Com­mit­tee de­cid­ed to host an on­line art auc­tion, hop­ing that more peo­ple will choose to do­nate and re­ceive ex­quis­ite art pieces.

Over 90 art pieces were do­nat­ed and are cur­rent­ly avail­able for bids via the AirAuc­tion­eer web­site, but peo­ple can vis­it the his­toric Mil­lie Fleurs in Port-of-Spain to view the art pieces on dis­play.

“The rea­son for the sup­port for the restora­tion is ei­ther be­cause your grand­par­ents may have been mar­ried, your par­ents got mar­ried there, you were bap­tised there or your par­ents were bap­tised there. Or you’re just be­ing part of the wider Bel­mont com­mu­ni­ty and you have en­joyed your time in Bel­mont, or you went to school in Bel­mont. There are peo­ple who will sup­port be­cause they want to see the preser­va­tion of built her­itage,” he added.

Some of the pieces in the on­line auc­tion were done by artists such as Char­lene Nivet, Michelle Boyd and Ker­ron John. Art pieces done by Leo Glas­gow and Har­ry Bry­den were al­so gen­er­ous­ly do­nat­ed to be auc­tioned off.

“This room is pure, it is a great rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the art of Trinidad and To­ba­go. I think it’s an en­er­getic thing that the art is go­ing to be used to help re­store and pre­serve one of Trinidad’s her­itage sites,” said Nali­ni Akal, a con­tribut­ing artist.

The Art Ex­hi­bi­tion and On­line Auc­tion Fundrais­er will end on Oc­to­ber 14.

If you wish to par­tic­i­pate or do­nate, vis­it St Fran­cis RC Church, Bel­mont via Face­book.