Last night my friend Christine and I attended Publicolor's annual Stir, Splatter + Roll benefit at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School and were seeing in technicolor by the time we painted our way home. The event was well attended by renowned designers, architects, and artists, most of whom were wearing uber cheerful and bright clothing representing the entire color wheel.
Publicolor is a youth development not-for-profit that has a multi-day multi-year program continuum that uniquely engages disaffected students in their education. The annual benefit sought to raise money to fund programs that empower students through commercial painting and an applied learning model to transform their institutional-looking schools into warm, welcoming student-centric environments. They also offer programs to involve the students in planning and preparing for college and career, while teaching strong and transferable work habits. Publicolor students are almost always the first in their families to go to college.
Event guests were invited to don Tyvek jumpsuits and try their hand at painting tote bags inspired by various designers. I spied Simon Doonan chatting it up with clothing designer Nicole Miller and briefly spoke with artists Rashid Johnson about his yellow palm tree design.
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| Simon Doonan with Nicole Miller at her table |
The event also featured a silent auction of more durable canvas tote bags decorated by huge names in the fashion and design world. I particularly loved the ones by Narciso Rodriguez, Betsy Johnson, and Paula Bell (so much so that I bid on that one!).
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| Silent auction table |
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| Betsy Johnson's tote |
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| Paula Bell's tote |
Catering was by David Ziff Cooking and was superb. There were more choices of passed hors d'oeuvres than I've ever seen, including tiny Texas-style BBQ sandwiches, zucchini wrapped shrimp, vegetable sushi, cumin chicken empanadas, tuna tartare on taro chips, and macadamia nut chicken chicken and grape skewers (sorry for the blurriness in some of the photos!).
As for beverages, my newly discovered palate (or palette if you will...) for whiskey was satisfied by Johnnie Walker Black and Macallan 12. Panther Creek Winery was also sampling their 2009 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir, which interestingly tasted like brown sugar. Yum!
Unfortunately we didn't stay for the dinner/awards portion of the night, but the sneak peek of the decked out gymnasium looked super colorful and fun. Thanks for having us!
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| Christine and I in our colorful garb |
You can check out more about Publicolor and their mission by visiting their website.
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