Press Room:
Arkansas Arts Center kicks off the à la cARTe event series with Andy Warhol

For more information contact:
Lyndsay Hansen
501-396-0308
lhansen@arkarts.com

October 4, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arkansas Arts Center kicks off the à la cARTe event series with Andy Warhol

(LITTLE ROCK, AR) -

The Arkansas Arts Center kicks off the à la cARTe fundraising event series with a martini tasting and fondue fête celebrating the pop-art icon Andy Warhol on Thursday, October 20 from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Arkansas Arts Center Alice Pratt Brown Atrium.

Complete with the music of Velvet Underground, one of Warhol's favorites, the party features gossip about Warhol's claim to fame and all the eccentricities of his life that made his work a mainstay in American art. The evening will continue with a variety of flavored martinis paired with assorted fondues. Andy Warhol's Untitled for Meyer Schapiro, along with artwork by four other well-known artists in the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection, will be on display.

Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy Warhol displayed artistic talent at an early age. After graduating from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, he began his career as a commercial illustrator for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. After experiencing success illustrating advertisements, he turned to the art of silkscreen and began creating an entourage of pop icons such as Campbell's Soup cans and celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Beginning in the 1950s and continuing after his death in 1987, Warhol's fame shows no signs of slowing down.

Coordinated by the Arkansas Arts Center Young Patrons, the à la cARTe series is comprised of five parties, each celebrating one of five eccentric and important artists - Andy Warhol, Dale Chihuly, Vincent Van Gogh, Gottfried Helnwein and Diego Rivera. Each event features delicious cuisine, cold beverages and above all, gossip about each artist.

Tickets to the Warhol kick-off event cost $50 and tickets to the subsequent a la cARTe events cost $30. All proceeds from each event benefit the Arkansas Arts Center. Original works by each artist from the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection will be displayed in the Stella Boyle Smith Gallery throughout the event series.

Come dine in celebration of legend Andy Warhol as you watch his secrets unfold into complete artistic brilliance.