Starkville Area Arts Council fundraising gala!

Last Saturday I attended the Starkville Area Arts Council fundraising gala at the Hunter Henry Center  on the MSU campus with Laurie Burton, who is the current arts council president. Laurie, like myself, is a weird art joker. Her special medium is sculpture, and her art is as surreal as it gets. 

Laurie Burton, SAAC President, and my date for the evening! 

Lots of well dressed folks there! Even me. I even had on a tie and sports jacket. That does not happen often! Laurie had a smoking hot plum colored dress that had just the right amount of fabric!

Me and Laurie Burton

The main point of the Gala is to raise money for our arts association, so tickets to the event are pretty steep, $75. Also, people donate art, weekend trips, jewelry, etc. to be bid on by the guests with all proceeds going to the arts council. Almost all of the donated items were bid on and sold, so that was wonderful. Even my donated print of "Mayan Awakening" sold; it went for $200.

Folks checking out some of the donated items

The theme this year was a Venetian one, and the catered food by Brian Michael's catering was supposed to be a reflection of that with some kind of veal entree and stuff. I can't say that I thought the main course was great, but fortunately, the dessert more than made up for it! Tiramisu!  Lots of wine was present to keep folks in a happy mood, and we had great live music by Bill Cooke and his band Can of Wermz. They were awesome and provided a nice mix of lively tunes with slow dance type music. And, believe me, when the music started, folks immediately started dancing! Especially the older folks! When I say older, I mean older than me (I am 50 years old) by 20 or more years. Some of those jokers could certainly cut a rug! There were some younger ones as well, and overall the dance floor was crowded for a good while. I am not a dancer by any stretch of the imagination, but somehow Laurie talked me into dancing. She is a great dancer and it was worth getting out there just to be a part of that. I have to say, I greatly enjoyed it.

Some dancers still going after as the evening was winding down

Tonight happened to be the night that our MSU football team was playing LSU (at LSU). Lots of bulldog fans wanted to keep up with the score, so some enterprising arts council member had the idea to ask for donations from various tables to show the game on the screens with the projector system. So, while lots of folks danced away, others spent that time with their eyes transfixed to the large screens watching MSU beat LSU for the first time in quite a while. Kind of weird I guess, but here in the SEC, college football is a religion.

Anyway, it was a fun evening and overall a success for the arts group.