"Artworks!" Means "Art Works" for Culver School

“Artworks!” Means “Art Works” for Culver School

If you were in attendance at the ninth annual Farragut Elementary School Artworks! Gala event, which took place on April 21 you would have witnessed Farragut parents, and teachers, along with Culver City council members and local businessmen pulling together to raise over funds to sustain the school’s art programming.

More than 200 community members were in attendance.

Farragut Elementary School, has an “Arts and Technology” focus, and parents have come together annually to raise money to keep art and music education at the school. Money raised through the Artworks activities goes toward covering the cost for a part-time Artist-in-Residence to teach bi-weekly art classes to children in all grades and music education for all students in partnership with organizations such as Do-Re-Mi, Symphonic Jazz Orchestra, L.A. Opera, and the Music Center.

Susan Hancock, the owner of Royal/T, generously donated the very creative space to Artworks again this year. Royal/T, located on Washington Boulevard near downtown Culver City, is a cafe and art gallery that mixes food with art. ion.

Mike King, whose daughters are alumni of Farragut, was the Emcee and Auctioneer for the evening. The most hotly contested auction item was an animation cel by Culver City resident Martha Sigall that brought in $2100.

This cel featured a parade of Looney Tune characters. Other hot items were a serigraph by Tim Dickson that fetched $300 and a brand new Mini Cooper foldable adult bike, sold for $550 from Steve Marx, South Bay BMW. Lisa Levin, Artworks! boutique manager hosted a Mother’s Day gift area.

This year, Artworks! was composed of three events: Community Arts Day, the online auction and the evening Gala event. The three Artworks! 2012 events netted close to $45,000, more than $11,000 than the previous year. 100% of this funding will be applied to art programming at the school.

The Artworks! Online auction was a success, and ran from April 15 to 25. Dianne Tyau, donation and auction manager stated, “ We solicited over 500 corporate and local businesses this year, two fold over previous Artworks! auctions, and we appreciate the generous donations we received from local businesses and corporations.”

This year’s chief gala organizer, Jodie Fratantuno did an impressive job heading up the Artworks! Gala. Christine Johnson, Artworks! chair spoke highly of the group of motivated parents.

Lynn Ebora, attending her first Artworks event as Farragut’s new principal, praised the community for their hard work to make this event a reality.

Micheál O’Leary, the owner of Joxer Daly’s Irish Pub in Culver City, donated the beer, wine, and the bar staff. There were many more sponsors, without whose help the event would not have yielded such a successful response.

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