2011 COLLECTIVE SPIRITS WINE AND FOOD FESTIVAL

~ Springtime in beautiful Western North Carolina with world class art, amazing chefs, distinguished winemakers can only mean one thing - Collective Spirits 2011! ~

ATLANTA, GA - Each spring, The Bascom Visual Arts Center in Highlands, North Carolina presents its highly anticipated fundraiser Collective Spirits. This three-day celebration of food, wine and the arts kicks off on May 19 marking the opening of the Summer Season in the mountains while acknowledging the gracious support of its community and sponsors such as Platinum level Wilmington Trust. Bascom Benefactors will wine and dine throughout the weekend with some of the worlds most revered winemakers and the Southeast’s most renowned chefs, who will converge on the town of Highlands among art lovers, community leaders and special guests to raise critical operating funds for The Bascom, its programming and exhibitions.

“While everyone loves a good party, and we will undoubtedly have one of those, this event is truly about The Bascom, this community and its friends coming together to support the role that this Fine Arts Center plays in the lives of the children, artists and visitors that come through its doors,” explains co-chair Virginia (Ginger) Kennedy.

This year, Collective Spirits will welcome the talent of Chef John Besh from Restaurant August in New Orleans for one of its Thursday Opening Night Private Wine Dinners. Chef John Fleer (formerly Chef at Blackberry Farm) now at Canyon Kitchen in Cashiers, Chef Carvel Gould from Canoe in Atlanta, Chef Frank Lee from S.N.O.B. (Slightly North of Broad) in Charleston and Chef Denny Trantham from Grove Park Inn in Asheville will lend their prowess to complete the unparalleled line-up. To pair with the extraordinary culinary creativity these masters bring to the table, wineries like Tuck Beckstoffer Wines, Brochelle Vineyards, DuMol, Ehlers Estate, Lambert Bridge Winery, Miner Family Wines, Paul Hobbs Wines, Reynolds Family, Schug Carneros Estate, Silver Oak Cellars, Solena Estate and Twomey Cellars will have principals and winemakers in attendance to share their wines and speak about their craft. Collective Spirits also presents the opportunity for Highlands residents to ‘stock their wine cellars’ at the beginning of the summer season. Continuing that tradition, current and limited release wines will also be available for purchase at various events during the weekend, courtesy of the guest winemakers in attendance.

On Friday of Collective Spirits weekend, guests will gather at The Bascom for a Grand Tasting with all the wineries present. Later that evening, patrons will enjoy several in-restaurant dinners at Highlands’ top establishments including Paoletti, Wolfgang’s, Old Edwards Inn and Gamekeepers’ Tavern. On Saturday, wine tasting stations will be scattered throughout town at retail shops like Bryson’s, Mountain Fresh and Town Square for a Sip & Stroll event.

The weekend culminates in a Grand Gala Wine Dinner and Auction Saturday evening on campus at The Bascom. Through the generous donation of Bascom patron Ruthie Watts, the event will feature some rare and valuable French wines including bottles of 100-point rated Chateau Margaux and Mouton Rothschild. Also up for bid is a VIP weekend for two couples with tours, tastings and dinners at Reynolds Family Winery and Lambert Bridge Winery in Napa and Sonoma respectively. A wine dinner for 12 in the Highlands home of Cathy and Bob Fisher, aptly named ‘The Castle,’ will again be offered to the highest bidder. An exclusive trip to Charleston during the Spoleto Festival is also planned. And, in keeping with the wine theme, a 15L bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne will be up for bid.

All of the planning and excitement that goes into Collective Spirits has The Bascom as its primary focus. “Raising critical operating funds to maintain the quality exhibitions, enrichment activities and studio art instruction for youth is at the heart of our mission,” explains Kennedy. In 2010, Collective Spirits was bestowed the gift of a life-long friendship in vintner and winemaker Dick Grace, Grace Family Vineyards. Grace, who attended last year, created the beginnings of The Bascom’s Youth Educational Outreach program with a first-ever paddle raise. Now known as ‘Cause within a Cause,’ this paddle raise will once again occur midway through the live auction and patrons will have a chance to provide funding to further Youth Education Outreach’s mission to reach every young person in this mountain region who for financial, cultural or geographical reasons has not yet experienced art.

Continued exhibition offering is also paramount to Collective Spirits success and through its fundraising accomplishments allows The Bascom to secure highly rated artists like Frank Stella: American Master on exhibit from July 7 through September 25. A painter, printer and sculptor whose work has followed an evolution from minimalist geometric to more dynamic expressionism, this presentation will include works on loan from Florida-collector Preston Haskell and will feature monumental printed works from the Moby Dick Series, Imaginary Places Series, Had Gadya Series and Exotic Bird Series as well as paintings and sculpture.