Russia was the birthplace of artists like Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevich and Vasili Vereshchagin. Now it's time to see what great Russian artists are living in your household.

Lisa Finneran, mother of twins adopted from Arkhangelsk and the driving force behind the philanthropic effort ArkAngels, has announced a Russian adoption art contest to benefit the children still living in Russia's orphanages. I've told you about ArkAngels and Lisa's other outreach efforts before; maybe you know her through her adoption cookbook, "Ya Tibya Lublu: Recipes of Love for Orphans of Eastern Europe". This is a woman who is never short on creative ideas to benefit children and she has come up with another good one now.

All of the details on the contest--including information on how to get the art to Lisa--can be found on Lisa's personal Web site. I'll sum up the major points here: The artwork can be in any medium, from crayons and pencils to paint and photography; competitors will be broken into four age groups from 6 and under to 21 and over; eligible artists include anyone who was adopted from Russia or anyone who loves someone who was. "That could mean anybody in this world," Lisa says. Just one caveat: Please make the art about Russia. The deadline for submitting art is midnight, November 30 and winners will be chosen through an online poll to be housed at one of Lisa's other blogs, here.

How does all this get turned into a fundraiser for Russian orphans? Lisa is asking for a $5 entry fee per picture and plans to donate all the monies received to Children's Hope Chest, an orphanage outreach outfit she has come to know and love. "Their mission is to improve the lives of the children who aren't going to be adopted," Lisa says. Most of the 750,000 children now in Russian orphanages are going to graduate from them and go out into the world." (More about Children's Hope Chest in the next post).

Lisa also plans to turn some of the art into items that could be sold through ArkAngels' online store. "I would love to turn one of them into an adoption announcement card," she says. "When I brought the twins home, I couldn't find anything in the stores."

Image credit: Morguefile.com