Eugene is home to many art organizations that work hard to create a community of art for the surrounding areas. On Friday, two of these organizations will collaborate to celebrate the love of the arts while working to raise money for each of their own causes through an event called Arts Amoré.
Arts Amoré promises to be a night full of food, art and entertainment. The event was put together by Impact! Arts, an education and community outreach association committed to offering arts programs — such as theater arts training for pre-school children all the way to adults — together with the New Zone Art Collective, a non-profit group established in 1983 to foster experimental visual arts.
“It is a benefit party, but it is kind of a Valentine’s Day party as well,” Randy Lord of Impact! Arts said. “There will be lots of good music, food, beer and wine. There will be some silent films as well.”
“We will have art provided by New Zone Art Collective, films provided by Impact! Arts, music by Botox and Mood Area 52, and DJ Molly B will be spinning discs after the live music,” Steve LaRiccia of New Zone said. “Imagine-a-Nation Puppet Theatre will also be there. It’s going to be a family event and all ages are able to come.”
Doors open for the event, hosted by Mayor Kitty Piercy, at 6 p.m. at
Eugene Wine Cellars at 255 Madison. The music begins at 7 p.m. with the jazzy sounds of Botox. Around 8:30 p.m., children and adults can enjoy the original performances of Imagine-a-Nation Puppet Theatre and at 9:30 p.m., when the kids
have gone off to bed, the tango
quartet Mood Area 52 will perform. After Mood Area 52, DJ Molly B will take over the stage to keep the fun going until midnight, and throughout the night Impact! Arts will be projecting a variety of silent movies both old and new.
Although both New Zone and
Impact! Arts agree that having fun
is the most important aspect of
the evening, Arts Amoré has
different goals for the different art organizations involved.
“A couple of students of ours died a couple of months ago in a car crash in Veneta. They were really bright, young, talented guys on their way to becoming really fine actors, and they were taken away from us too soon,” Lord said. “So we established a memorial scholarship fund in their name called the Kyle and Bryan Memorial Scholarship Fund. The money that we raise will be going directly into that fund. This will help any promising young students who wish to take our classes but can’t do so because of finances.”
New Zone also has its own goal for the fundraiser, which includes raising money through a silent auction.
“Our goal is to show off our work and for people to have a good time,” LaRiccia said. “We used to have a space in downtown Eugene, but
we lost that when the building was sold, so we would like to raise
some money to try to get a gallery space. That is our goal, but we’ll
see what happens.”
Tickets are $10 in advance and are available at Eugene Wine Cellars, the Museum of Unfine Art and Record Store and Tsunami Books. Tickets can also be purchased for $12 at the door. Free food and refreshments will be provided.