United Arts Launches Fundraising Event: "GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?"
RALEIGH, NC Ð The United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County is embarking on their first annual "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" fundraising event October 19-22, 2005. North Carolina First Lady Mary Easley is serving as Honorary Chair of this event.
Eighteen dinner parties will be held in private homes around Wake County. Special hosts will offer a limited number of reservations for guests to enjoy dinner, drinks and conversation with many accomplished and talented artists, including writers, singers, actors, painters, sculptors and others.
Guests will choose their dinner site but will not know the identity of the artist who will be their fellow guest. It may be actress Sharon Lawrence, a Raleigh native with three Emmy nominations to her credit; Tony Award-winning costumer designer for Broadway William Ivey Long; Raleigh artist Bob Rankin, whose work is collected internationally; Doug Marlette, Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist; or Margaret Maron, popular North Carolina writer whose books have been nominated for every major award in the American mystery field for which they are eligible. These are just a few of the artists who will be featured dinner guests. They represent excellence is many art forms and fields, and they all have solid North Carolina connections.
Dinner party locations will include a 19th-century estate; a luxury urban condo; a lakeside villa and 15 other of the area's most inviting homes for entertaining. Also included is the North Carolina State Capitol, where guests will dine by candlelight in the historic rotunda.
A complete list of dinner party locations, hosts and attending artists will be available on the United Arts website (www.unitedarts.org/dinner/) starting September 20, 2005. Reservations are $75/$125/$250 per person, depending upon location.
For those who are unable to attend or want to further support United Arts, the fundraiser also includes a raffle with three prize packages including a 5-day/4-night Walt Disney World vacation; a New York City theatre weekend in December 2005; and a night on the town in Raleigh for four with dinner, limousine and theatre tickets.