Arts & Culture Alliance reaps $57,000 from fundraiser

Dinner on the Bridge benefit for the Arts & Heritage Fund. Image courtesy of The Arts & Culture Alliance.

The Arts & Culture Alliance held a Dinner on the Bridge fundraising event on October 2, 2016 that benefitted the Arts & Heritage Fund. The 240 attendees, sponsors, and volunteers made this fundraiser possible. The Alliance’s inaugural fundraiser welcomed eleven sponsors and sold 230 tickets, $2,000 in silent auction items, and $2,523 in artwork purchases, resulting in over $57,000 of net proceeds. The gross income from the event was $86,000.

“We couldn’t have imagined a more perfect night to celebrate the Anniversary of our beautiful city,” says Liza Zenni, Executive Director of the Arts & Culture Alliance. “So many good people helped make this event the success that it was, and we are truly grateful to every one of them.”

The live auction by Furrow Auction Company of Celebration on the Bridge, an original painting by Mike C. Berry, sold for $5,500. Limited edition giclee prints (22” x 18”) of Celebration on the Bridge are now available for $140 and are signed and numbered by the artist in the lower left-hand corner. Proceeds benefit the Arts & Heritage Fund. Please call the Arts & Culture Alliance at (865) 523-7543 to purchase a print.

Dinner on the Bridge included hors d’oeuvres, dinner and dessert by All Occasion Catering, cocktails by The Pour Guys, and entertainment by Carol Zinavage Shane with the event tickets. Additionally, City of Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero gave remarks; R.B. Morris, the City of Knoxville’s First Poet Laureate, read his inaugural poem; and Visit Knoxville provided fireworks along the Gay Street bridge to end the evening.

View a gallery of images from the event, courtesy of Jon Gustin and Casey Hungerford at www.knoxalliance.com/dinner-pictures/.

Event sponsors included AC Entertainment, All Occasion Catering, All Occasions Party Rentals, Ann & Steve Bailey, Cherokee Distributing Company, City of Knoxville – Madeline Rogero Mayor, Cornerstone Foundation, First Tennessee Bank, Knoxville News Sentinel, Pugh & Company, Visit Knoxville, and WBIR-TV.

Managed by the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville, the Arts & Heritage Fund raises money to support a wide range of arts organizations, historical sites, and cultural organizations throughout the area.

Published October 27, 2016