Wine & Dine seeks input on 2021 programs
Rather than being in the final push toward what would have been the 12th annual Wine & Dine for the Arts festival, traditionally held in mid-january, the board of the Albany-based organization is seeking input from the public about programming it can offer this year to continue its mission of supporting arts groups.
A front-runner proposal is a series of live, interactive, hourlong streaming events. An announcement from Wine & Dine for the Arts says, in part: "We are considering pairing a different national or local celebrity chef with the executive director of a local arts organization in each episode to demonstrate live cooking recipes, beverage talks and tastings, updates from the arts, and more."
To gauge interest and willingness to pay for such programming, Wine & Dine for the Arts is conducting a 10-question online survey. Use this shortcut to take the survey: bit.ly/2mobdb0
First held in 2010, Albany Chefs’ Food & Wine Festival: Wine & Dine for the Arts was founded by a group of restaurateurs and other hospitality professionals to offer financial help to area arts organizations affected by the cancellation of the long-running Albany City Arts Grants program. To date, Wine & Dine has given away about $1.2 million, raised during weekends of events that in past years attracted about 3,000 people annually and included tastings with food from dozens of local chefs and hundreds of global alcoholic beverages, gala dinners, competitions and more.