“I’m the Ponce brother that’s not currently on TV, Welz Kauffman Ponce” declared Ravinia’s President & Chief Executive Officer, to a round of laughter from the crowd. Last Thursday’s Chicago High School for the Arts’ Kerfuffle! fundraiser, which took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago was a sold out affair bringing in some of Chicago’s current and next generation power players in the art, philanthropy and corporate circle.
Co-chaired by JP Morgan Chase Francia “Francee” Harrington and Mirja Haffner, this was the second graduating class of the first and only public high school for the arts in Chicago that began admission in 2009.
Francia Harrington, Mirja Haffner-Kerfuffle Co-Chairs
What began with a cocktail reception on the 2nd floor of the museum with ChiArts students providing music then moved in to the auditorium for the performance. ChiArts student Dara Brown a 2014 National YoungArts honorable mention, wowed the crowd with her voice. Student Bruce Bennett is a finalist and $10,000 scholarship recipient of the YoungArts award
WGN Morning News Dan Ponce, welcomed guests but not before giving clarification of which Ponce was on which Chicago TV station. Father Phil is on WTTW and brother Anthony is on NBC.
Dara Brown, Dan Ponce Milla Guerra, Sydney Shelton
The performances were broken into 4 sectors with guidance from the Welz Kauffman of Ravinia Festival(Music), Martha Levy & David Hawkanson of Steppenwolf Theatre(Theatre), Douglas Druick of The Art Institute of Chicago (Visual Arts), & Ashley Wheater and Greg Cameron of Joffrey Ballet (Dance).
Guests in attendance included some members of Kerfuffle! host committe chaired by Corporate Cleaning’s Neal Zucker, Ebs Burnough, Nora Daley Conroy, Linda Johnson Rice and Alexa Rice, Karim Ahamed, Elissa Efroymson & Adnaan Hamid, Monica Hughson, Anne Kaplan.
The annual fundraiser which supports the school had the goal of raising $300,000 and with guests such as William Blair’s Dick Kiphart, former Nicor CEO Russ Strobel along with son Ben Strobel, Northern Trust’s Jason Tyler, Sandra & Jack Guthman, Sylvia Neil, Ted Haffner, we’re sure they met the goal.
Parents of ChiArts students offered assistance as volunteers, event sponsors and donors. Two ChiArts parents provided photography and videography for the event.
Are there any fundraisers planned in the near future, or interesting events the school is hosting?
ChiArts has a few events lined up before the end of the year. They will present “Eat to the Beat” at the Harris Theater on May 21st, Visual Arts Exhibition and Reception on May 30th and ChiArts Graduation at the Harris Theater on June 13th.
[new_royalslider id=”11″]with contribution from Megan Purazrang
