Summer Soirées

Summer Soirées is the FPDP’s principal fundraising event that takes place during even numbered years. Look forward to attending many soirées in 2008! Our target object in 2008 is the stunning color lithograph by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec featured here and on the Overview page. With no inkling that it would become the beautiful tradition that it is, the GAC launched its first round of Summer Soirées in 1996. Over the years, the program has generated over $135,000 to purchase works of art on paper for the DIA collection. The program’s great success is sparked by the generosity of local collectors and artists who open their homes and studios to a series of parties ranging from brunches, teas, and afternoon cocktails, to all types of suppers and dinners. Summer Soirées is always a great time to meet and mingle with lovers of art and fans of tasty food and engaging company. Guests can count on being enthralled by the variety of offerings, both in the format of the events and in their focus. All forms of art–not just the graphic arts–from collections of paintings, sculpture, the decorative arts, and design to great gardens and inspiring architecture are presented. This is a fundraiser in the truest sense of the word–100 percent of the proceeds are given to acquisitions for the DIA. Over the decade, these purchases have included a monumental color woodcut self-portrait by the German expressionist Erich Heckel; prints by African American artists, including Vincent Smith’s monoprint Baptism #1; Arthur Wesley Dow’s Rain in May and the blocks from which it was printed; Jasper John’s Green Angel II, and most recently, the stunning drypoint in cubist style Portrait of an Actor by Jacques Villon.

Vincent Smith Baptism #1 Arthur Wesley Dow Rain in May   Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender en buste, 1895