Avery Arts Council Hosts Mountain Palette Gala July 16

Story by Anna Oakes

One of the items up for bid at the 2009 Avery Arts Council Mountain Palette Gala on Thursday, July 16, is a necklace by jewelry designer Mia Katrin called “Golden Glory.”

Tickets are still available—but are selling quickly—for the Mountain Palette Gala, a classy affair that annually serves as the Avery County Arts Council’s largest fundraiser. The event, featuring a gourmet meal, live music and silent and live auctions, takes place on Thursday, July 16, at Linville Ridge Country Club.

Tickets for the Mountain Palette Gala are $125 per person and can be purchased from the Avery Arts Council. 

“It’s such a lovely evening,” said LouAnn Morehouse, executive director of the Avery Arts Council.

Cocktail hour, featuring hors d’oeuvres and an open bar, begins at 5:30 p.m., during which time guests can view items available for auction. Some 200 items are up for bid in the silent auction, including high-end art items, golf packages, spa packages, jewelry and sculpture.

Ottava Rima will perform classical and chamber music.

Linville Ridge Chef Derek Smee will prepare the dinner, to be served at 7:00 p.m. The menu features a salad course of iceberg lettuce, marinated artichoke hearts, heirloom tomatoes, organic shitake mushrooms, tobacco onions and brown butter vinaigrette; whole grain dinner rolls; an entrée course of mixed grill of petite 4-ounce filet mignon, black pepper gastrique and beggars purse of duck confit, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese and herbs, au gratin potato stack, broccolini and baby carrots; and a dessert course of white grape sorbet and nosto di uve sauce, fresh berries and homemade whipped cream and mint, and an artist palate cookie.

“Dinner is going to be fantastic,” Morehouse said.

Also up for bid at the Mountain Palette Gala are hand-pieced and quilted table runners made by Peggy Hobart and Barbara Piquet from the River Walk Quilt Guild. Hobart and Piquet took their inspiration from designs found along the Avery Quilt Trail.

The live auction will immediately follow the dinner. Jewelry designer Mia Katrin has created a beautiful necklace for the live auction called “Golden Glory.” The intricate necklace features nine opulent citrine briolettes accented with chocolate pearls in 14 karat gold. Katrin’s designs are featured in galleries nationally, including the High Country’s own Carlton Gallery and Hardin Fine Jewelry. The “Golden Glory” necklace and companion earrings are on view throughout June at Hardin Fine Jewelry in Banner Elk. Renowned sculptor Wayne Trapp has once again donated a new sculpture to the live auction, and basket weaver Billie Ruth Suddreth has also donated one of her works to the auction.

Valerie Stevens is once again donating the table centerpieces, Morehouse said.

“Last year they were a huge hit, and they were auctioned off at the end,” she said. “[Stevens] is just very generous to arts and charities around here.”

“This really is our bread and butter,” she said. “It assures our continuing existence.”

Gala sponsors helping to underwrite the costs of the event are Hood, Hargett, and Associates, Dianne Davant and Associates and Jason and Rebecca Warner. 

Last year, the gala netted more than $40,000 for the Avery Arts Council. That money is needed to match grants from the N.C. Arts Council, Morehouse said, and accounts for about 95 percent of the council’s operations.

Upcoming Avery Arts Council events include a free lecture on Cherokee removal by professor William Anderson at the Banner House Museum on Saturday, July 18, at 11:30 a.m., the Riverwalk Arts Festival at Riverwalk Park in Newland on Saturday, August 15, and the Greater Banner Elk Paint Out on Saturday, August 22, at the new Banner Elk Greenway.

The Avery Arts Council is located at The Cheese House on the campus of Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk. For more info, call 828-898-4292 or click to www.AveryCountyArtsCouncil.org.

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