TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – How would you like to conduct the University of Alabama’s Million Dollar Band in front of 92,000 people at a Crimson Tide home football game?
That once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is one of many items to be auctioned at the fifth annual “Arty Party” on Friday, April 4, to benefit UA’s School of Music, part of the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Arty Party will begin at 6 p.m. at the Four Points Sheraton, 320 Paul W. Bryant Drive, in Tuscaloosa.
Individual tickets may be purchased for $150, table sponsorships for $1,250, and benefactor sponsorships for $2,500. Tickets may be purchased by phoning 205/348-7007 or on the Web at www.as.ua.edu/artyparty. Table sponsors and benefactors receive special recognition at the event.
The evening will include cocktails and a silent auction, dinner, a live auction, and music performed by faculty and students from the School of Music.
“This year’s Arty Party, themed ‘A Night at the Moulin Rouge,’ will take guests to the artistic period of turn-of-century France, a rich time in the history of music,” said Rae Trimmier, chair of Arty Party. “Our salute to the School of Music begins with champagne and musical vignettes. Our purpose is not only to raise funds for the fine arts but to increase awareness of the talented students and faculty in these areas at The University of Alabama.”
A highlight of the evening will be the opportunity to have School of Music students and faculty compose and perform original songs “on demand” for Arty Party guests.
Auction items include an evening with world-renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman with two tickets to his April 12 concert at UA, backstage passes, a Perlman signed musical score and a signed collector’s violin. Guests also can bid on the chance to travel with the School of Music’s Million Dollar Band to the University of Tennessee or Louisiana State University, sit near the band during the game and have sideline access during halftime. Additionally, College of Engineering students have transformed beautiful brass and polished wood instruments from the School of Music into one-of-a-kind artistic lamps that will be auctioned at the event.
The Arty Party will also auction artwork by nationally-recognized artists and UA alumni William Christenberry, Frank Fleming, and Nall, among others. There also will be VIP football tickets, vacation packages, an autographed item by UA head football coach Nick Saban, dinner packages and much more.
For the first time this year, Arty Party guest from Birmingham will have the opportunity to travel to Tuscaloosa on the complementary Arty Party Bus with live music and refreshments.
The Arty Party annually showcases and raises funds for the fine and performing arts at UA. Proceeds will provide for new instruments for School of Music students and support scholarships and priority academic needs in other fine and performing arts departments in the College.
The event is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences’ Leadership Board and coordinated by the board’s Fine Arts Committee. Trimmier and the committee’s co-chair, Barbara Stone, are both of Birmingham.
Arty Party committee members include: India Askew, Marjorie Forney, Carol Pitts Hovanec, Marsha King, Virginia Rembert Liles, Margaret Livingston, Helen Mills, and Tricia Noble of Birmingham; Claire Black, Gay Burrows, Ronald Davis, Joseph Fritz, Wilson and Milla Green, Jan Mize, Stella Moore and Mary Jean “MoJo” Weaver of Tuscaloosa; John Cranton and Susan Helmsing of Mobile; Elizabeth Burford Crump of Montgomery; Katie Harris Mitchell of Decatur; Anne Barr Herman of Suwanee, Ga.; and Joseph A. “Woody” Woodruff of Franklin, Tenn.
The auctioneer for the event will be Jack Granger, of Granger Thagard & Associates in Birmingham.
For more information visit the College of Arts and Sciences Arty Party Web site www.as.ua.edu/artyparty.
Contact
Sarah Colwell, Communications Specialist, College of Arts and Sciences, 205/348-8539, sccolwell@as.ua.edu