|
| |
|
|
Reserve your seat now for 2011 Chair Affair+By DEBORAH MOON 2011-04-15
This year’s major Community Warehouse fundraiser the 2011 Chair Affair+ has expanded to two nights, April 28 and 29, in a new downtown location at Pioneer Place. Rooted in the Jewish community’s efforts to furnish apartments for Jewish refugees arriving from the former Soviet Union, the Community Warehouse now provides donated furniture and basic household goods to low-income families in Oregon and southwest Washington. In 2010, the Warehouse provided free furniture or household items to more than 5,800 people. “We’re excited to host the Chair Affair+ downtown,” said event chair Miriam Hecht. “It gives great visibility to our artists who donate their work to support the warehouse, and to the warehouse itself so more people learn about the important service we do.” |
Donated by Pioneer Place management, the venue features street front windows along Southwest Fourth Avenue and Yamhill Street that offer excellent month-long viewing of the 100+ works of art as well as elegant space for both parties. This year more than a dozen Jewish artists have donated their time and talent to create pieces for the auction, including Chris Haberman, Kindra Crick, Bonnie Meltzer, Fredrick Zal, Glenn Decherd, Amy Estrin, Gary Pearlman, Geordie Duckler, Robin Esterkin, Nely Johnson, Brauna Ritchie, Chuck Saxe, Eddy Shuldman, Wendy Steinberg, Jackie Lipshutz and Barbara Atlas. Estrin has transformed a chair for the annual fund-raiser every year since it began five years ago. “The Community Warehouse seems to do all the right things for the right reasons…in other words they are a group of mensches,” said Estrin. “When people are doing their best to get their lives on the right track, a home, a place that feels like home, is critical. I am fortunate to work with people who have the means to create a beautiful home. …I think Community Warehouse helps people do that when resources are critically low. I am honored to help them.” Havurah Shalom member Duckler has also participated in the fundraiser each year since its inception. “I think that the normal human desire to look at art objects in a public setting often brings people together in ways that more mundane or anonymous charitable donations or philanthropies cannot,” said Duckler. “It meets one test that tzedakah refers to of giving in a public manner in the form of creating a productive partnership with a needy community in a social way.” Decherd, a member of Congregation Neveh Shalom, is in his third year as an artist participant. As a potter, he said all of his contributions have been ceramics pieces. “I am happy to contribute to the Chair Affair because I believe that the more fortunate among us have an obligation to help the less fortunate with a hand up and assistance in improving the quality of their lives,” said Decherd. “The Community Warehouse contributes to tikkun olam, a purpose I heartily support.” Another third-year contributor, Johnson said she volunteers her talents because “Community Warehouse gives household furniture and other goods to people who otherwise would not be able to furnish their homes.” Johnson, who moved from Romania to the United States in 1962 with her sister and parents, who survived World War II, knows first-hand how challenging it can be to begin anew. In her first year contributing to the Chair Affair+, Bonnie Meltzer incorporated a painted globe with found objects and crocheted wire into a metal-base, glass-top table to create a functional piece of art she calls Home isn’t Just Local. Though this is her first year participating in the fundraiser, she said she previously has donated used items to the warehouse “because they don’t make the recipients pay for the items.” “Artists are constantly asked to donate artwork,” said Meltzer. “The Community Warehouse acknowledges the considerable contribution that artists make with graciousness and panache.” Another first time artist, Zal transformed a rocking chair through torch-cut steel, hand-rubbed with coal, steampunked and blazoned with bones to create a chair with an “urban tribal verve.” “I am thrilled to be one of their selected artists this year,” said Zal. “I know how important it is to have a few simple elements to create a space and make a ‘home.’ A bed, a desk, a mix-master to bake cookies, can give one a feeling of centering and strength in these challenging economic times. Thank you Community Warehouse for helping inspire hearts and homes.” Now in its fifth year, the Chair Affair+ is the agency’s biggest fundraiser and a popular spring event. Last year’s sold out party raised more than $100,000 for the Warehouse. “It is amazing what the artists have come up with this year,” says Hecht. “You’ve got to see them to believe them. From a tiny chair made from sidewalk debris to a full-size metal tree growing from the middle of an antique table, the Chair Affair+ is a showcase for creative reuse and vision.” Chairs+ will be displayed throughout April at Mario’s at 833 SW Broadway, and in the Pioneer Place windows on the Southwest Fourth, Fifth, Yamhill block. All of the artwork can be viewed and purchased online in April at communitywarehouse.org. Tickets to the Reserved Seat dinner on April 28 and the Standing Room Only party on April 29 can also be purchased from the Community Warehouse website, or by calling 971-255-1103. |
|
