Art Base launches fundraising campaign, window art project, moves pARTy online
CCY Architects/courtesy image
The Art Base has launched a $100,000, six-week spring fundraising campaign with an anonymous lead gift of $15,000, the Basalt-based nonprofit announced this week.
The news comes as Roaring Fork Valley arts nonprofits grapple with canceled events, lost revenue and an uncertain fundraising landscape amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and its attendant economic crisis.
The Art Base is raising funds toward an $8 million goal to fund a permanent facility in the revamped Basalt riverfront, as part of a redevelopment approved in February. The community art center has suspended all of its in-person classes, exhibitions and events since mid-March and canceled its annual gala — the Art Base “pARTy” — which had been scheduled for Aug. 15. In place of the event, which would have hosted 250 guests, the Art Base is planning an online version of its annual “10×10 Name Unseen Auction” and small “salon receptions” where donors can view the art in person while abiding by social-distancing guidelines.
The spring fundraising campaign coincides with the launch of an Art Base initiative to distribute original artwork depicting rainbows, asking valley residents to place them in their windows or share in other creative ways during the pandemic. Downloadable links to the rainbow artwork are online at artbase.org.
As COVID-19 shuttered public life in the valley this spring, the Art Base has launched an Art Kits To-Go initiative that has provided 565 kits thus far, while also running online art classes, mentoring programs, virtual exhibits and providing bilingual art prompts.
Mucking with Movies: ‘A Haunting in Venice’
Filmmaking is an incredibly difficult endeavor and the achievement of a finished film should be celebrated alongside any critique. But, it is the movies that believe they are reaching for something greater and fall short that truly offend me. The ones that think they are transcending art and are doing something on some higher plane but fail are what I deem bad movies. “A Haunting in Venice” takes itself so seriously it cannot be redeemed.
