What’s not to love about Paris in the springtime?
Printemps à Paris was the next best thing to being in the world’s most romantic city. It was an ideal milieu for an arts gala, given the lasting love affair between its beneficiaries, the Victoria Symphony and Pacific Opera Victoria.
Victoria Conference Centre became Paris’s 21st arrondissement on June 8, with images of the Eiffel Tower, French flags, a mischievous mime, Aaron Watson’s mood-setting accordion music and a dazzling collection of live and silent auction items highlighted by unique Parisian-style bistro tables crafted by local artists. “We wanted a theme that would celebrate the love of life, music and joie de vivre, and Paris is the perfect city to do that,” said auction committee chairwoman Susan Wetmore, who lived there for 18 years.
Some 325 guests who paid $250 apiece dined on a four-course Fairmont Empress dinner that included vichyssoise and filet mignon, enjoyed a cabaret concert featuring the Robert Holliston Ensemble and guests, and applauded longtime arts supporters and philanthropists Dr. Erika Kurth and Hugh Davidson, recipients of the Unforgettable Award. The auctions raised $57,000.
Honorary chairman Eric Charman arranged to have his Egon Baumann Music Foundation match donations and corporate sponsorships up to $50,000 raised before the gala. Organizers raised $52,473, for a total of $102,473.
POV executive director Patrick Corrigan said the partnership is win-win. “There’s no opera without the symphony,” he said. “It really takes a community pulling together to have world-class art.”
Victoria Symphony executive director Mitchell Krieger said a joint concert presentation of South Pacific next fall is an exciting example of their “very special and wonderful” collaboration.
While acknowledging the value of its annual Symphony Splash (“our gift to the city”), Krieger said Printemps à Paris was significant because of how much more it raises to support initiatives.
“We’re so blessed to be able to give the musicians, the virtuosos that are members of the Victoria Symphony, a significant portion of their livelihood in difficult times,” he said.
Timothy Vernon, POV’s founding artistic director, said the public funding models the arts once depended on are dissolving. “You need a really active board prepared to shoulder fundraising.”
Charman said “it’s pathetic” that arts organizations must work so hard to raise funds, adding such events present a great opportunity for longtime supporters to integrate with a new generation of benefactors.
“Once they learn about the fun and joy of giving back to the community, they don’t stop.”
