A Late Spring Eve's Dream- Party in a Garden!

How do you raise some dough for a contemporary dance company? In this case River North Dance Chicago.

You marshal the collective resources of your urbane, artistic circle and host the Garden Party & Art Auction. This year I was delighted to be directly supporting the event promotions and recruitment of local artists. If you have a moment, I recommend you visit the pages of my peeps:

• Red Heidi - Jewelry- hand crafted, elegant designs. You can commission her directly or purchase at Avram Eisen Gallery or Women and Children First bookstore.
• Roberto Cabrera- Leading contemporary visual artist, graduate of and adjunct instructor at SAIC.
• Jennifer Kohnke- Award winning illustrator- her works appear often in the Chicago Tribune and if you ever check out the weather in the Trib then chances are you are looking at one of her meteorological maps.

Also pleased to have local blogger, (although he is still blogging on his recent Vancouver trip- he's a transplant) PH. 

So other than linking you to all of my friends who happen to have sites, what you may ask is the purpose of this post? Well to highlight a thoroughly enjoyable event, and to lend a social shout-out to how a arts organization leverages its connections to raise much needed dough. The answer is to make the experience as enjoyable as possible! That may well be the genius or motivator behind such labors of love. My good friend, and former client, MR has certainly poured much of himself into these events over the years. It was so nice to be able to bring together a few of my peeps, generate some exposure for their endeavors, and raise some green. Added bonus is to enhance and enrich the cultural landscape of our fair city. Richard Florida has long had much to say on this subject.

A worthy effort for a Saturday evening. I wonder if they'll ask me to collude on the annual benefit in November?

In the meantime, I urge you to visit the River North site where you can peruse videos of some of their performances.  Also that of Homey Gallery the gracious host of the event.

A dreamy late spring eve.