The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Celebrity painters help boost prize night
TORRINGTON — The Connecticut Art Prize event on Friday, hosted by Connecticut Academy For the Arts, featured people sometimes not known as artists — writers, on-air personalities, various board members, community leaders and dignitaries.
CAFTA partnered with United Way of Northwest Connecticut as they had done for the very first event. The venue was the Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory in downtown Torrington, which features a cavernous atrium, glass walls and a skybox.
An online bidding opportunity through www.BiddingOwl preceded the live auction, with more than one of the “celebrity” artists bidding on their own artwork. CAFTA founders Teresa and John Sullivan decided to make an addition to the Celebrities Paint for a Cause prize of $1,000, to be awarded to the People’s Choice winner, who would donate to their favorite charity. Prizes included $500 for the People’s Choice Teacher winner and $500 for the People’s Choice Student winner.
Paintings were hanging on the walls, identified only by numbers, with one exception. American Mural Project founder and artist Ellen Griesedieck created a showpiece
that merited a table top and sold for $800. Griesedieck, who lives in Sharon, is the artistic mastermind of the AMP in Winsted.
The event benefits a multitude of individuals and organizations throughout the region. The timing was serendipitous, Teresa Sullivan said, because 2019 had been a great year for CAFTA.
“In May, our middle school program CAFTA Italian Arts Outreach or CIAO students wrote an original short play for an Italian international literary competition,” she said. “They not only were finalists and invited to Agrigento, Sicily to perform their play in the Luigi Pirandello Theater, but went on to win one of the top three prizes against over 800 students from 117 schools in 11 countries.”
CAFTA is celebrating its sixth year of community partnership with the Torrington Public Schools, planning together many new creative programs.
“We also continue in our 10th year of after-school creativity, art, design, film and animation classes,” Sullivan said.
Owen Quinn, executive director of the United Way of Northwest CT, wrote in the program that the ArtPrize2 event links the mission of the United Way
“Working in your Community” and their dream is that this develops into a regional art event, and ultimately a destination point that draws attention to Northwest Connecticut as an art oasis for the world to enjoy.
Beverage sponsors included Litchfield Distillery, Little Red Barn Brewery and Jerram Winery, while Ciesco Catering, Sawyer’s, Edison Grill and Vinny’s
Restaurant were among several other restaurants and vendors providing the appetizers. Entertainment, interspersed with the bidding, included Nutmeg Conservatory dancers performing a ballet in the middle of the cavernous atrium, followed by a performance by a red-robed chorus.
CAFTA is located at 100 Prospect St. For details about the nonprofit organization, call 860-201-5706, visit www.cafta.info/ or email cafta.usa@gmail.com.
Nutmeg Ballet Conservatory, at 58 Main St. in Torrington, offers on-site housing for foreign students and the Torrington Elks Club provides meals. For details about the conservatory, call 860-482-4413, visit www.nutmegconservatory.org or email info@nutmegconservatory.org,