CONNEAUT – With the post-holiday doldrums and mid-winter arctic chill firmly in place, the Conneaut Arts Center is offering a bit of a little pick-me-up.
The CAC is offering the perfect-midwinter activity to lift spirits with its annual Let’s Wine About Art event.
“It’s just always a fun night,” CAC Executive Director David Jones said. “It’s one of our favorite events we do throughout the year, and it’s a great blend of art and community. Even if you think an art auction is not for you, (Let’s Wine About Art) is for you, I promise. You’ll have fun. It’s more of a community event than it is an auction.”
Let’s Wine About Art will be hosted on Saturday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
The event will include auctions, raffles and games.
“We have a lot of different games and auctions throughout the night, too,” CAC Administrative Assistant Jordan Jones said. “We have the chance raffle, the silent auction, the live auction. We also have Wheel of Fortune. There’s going to be a wine bundle that you can win, a 50/50.”
Wine from Buccia Vineyards will be featured and heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served.
“If you’ve ever come to Let’s Wine About Art, when it says heavy hors d’oeuvres on the flyer, it means heavy hors d’oeuvres,” David Jones said. “One of our pride and joys is the hors d’oeuvres. We really go all out with that.”
Tickets for the event are $50 per person, $95 per couple and $360 for a table of eight. Each ticket comes with one free drink ticket. Tickets purchased before Feb. 1 will be entered into an early bird drawing.
Buccia Vineyard is providing the wine for the event.
Sponsorships can also be purchased that come with different packages of perks.
Sponsorship packages include:
• Chardonnay ($400) – Four complimentary tickets to event; option to purchase up to six discounted tickets at $30 each; five extra complimentary drink vouchers; prominent logo placement at event and in event program; prominent logo placement on all event advertising; logo placement in monthly newsletter preceding/following event; and large logo on banner displayed in main gallery preceding/following event.
• Pinot Noir ($250) – Two complimentary tickets to event; option to purchase up to six discounted tickets at $30 each; two extra complimentary drink vouchers; logo placement in event program; logo placement in all event advertising; name placement in monthly newsletter preceding/following event; and small logo on banner displayed in main gallery preceding/following event.
• Cabernet Sauvignon ($100) – Option to purchase up to four discounted tickets at $30 each; name placement in event program; and name placement in monthly newsletter preceding/following event.
Sponsorships should be purchased prior to Feb. 14 to be included on the banners and advertising.
The CAC is also offering Spirit of the Arts tickets, which are a way to support the event without attending.
Let’s Wine About Art is the Conneaut Arts Center’s signature fundraiser.
“We do have a few throughout the year, but this is by far and away our largest fundraiser,” David Jones said. “It really kind of carries us through the last of the winter months and then sets us up really nicely for spring, so we can just hit the ground running from there.”
Aside from being a fundraiser, Let’s Wine About Art is a celebration of art.
“The funding is a huge part of it, but also just seeing all of the local art from way different artists from all around the county and from outside is just really fascinating every year, what people donate and what people bring in,” David Jones said.
Many of the attendees and donors to the event have spent years patronizing the arts center.
“It’s just a very a humbling experience, because there are so many people who come from backgrounds where they’ve grown up here at the arts center, and then there’s people who have only ever come to things like this, and whether it’s the patrons or the donors, the artists, everybody who’s involved in this specific event is so vastly different,” Jordan Jones said. “It’s so exciting to see how many different people come to this and help us with this.”
A number of items will be auctioned during the event.
“We have paintings, we have sculptures, we have photography, experiences,” David Jones said. “We get gift certificates to different things as far away as Cleveland, Erie, down in the Youngstown, Akron area. There’s sporting events, museums, the aquarium, all kinds of different things. There’s something for everyone is basically what it boils down to.”
Auction items for just about everybody will be available.
“One of the great things about the silent auction is that it starts out at a very reasonable price,” David Jones said. “We’re talking $25, $30. You could win some really great things in the silent auction for under 50 bucks. Then, we have the live auction, which is where some of the experiences, sports memorabilia, some of these paintings are from Paul Tikkanen who is a very prolific artist. They are original pieces. Some of them will be staying in our private collection, and a few of them will be going in the live auction. He painted in Africa and Finland. He’s had pieces in Paris and New York museums. He won the Cleveland Museum of Art’s contest twice. He was a huge supporter of the Conneaut Arts Center and the Ashtabula Arts Center.”
The Conneaut Arts Center is grateful to everyone who contributes items to the auction.
“We wouldn’t exist without the generosity of the public and all of the artists who support us and donate to fundraisers such as this and just other ones throughout the year,” David Jones said. “I can’t even put a word to it besides how humbling and grateful we are to the community.”
