FINDERS KEYPERS

Arts center fund-raiser set to boost awareness

Staff hopes to raise from $1,000 to $2,000

4/14/2014
BY CARL RYAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Sarah Kurfis, interim executive director of the Collingwood Arts Center, said she hopes the fund-raiser helps meet the center’s many needs.
Sarah Kurfis, interim executive director of the Collingwood Arts Center, said she hopes the fund-raiser helps meet the center’s many needs.

Collingwood Arts Center, that refuge for artists directly across Collingwood Boulevard from Scott High School, hopes to raise $1,000 to $2,000 at its Finders Keypers fund-raiser on Saturday.

Sarah Kurfis, the arts center’s interim executive director, said she wants to make the fund-raiser an annual event, both as a way to improve the nonprofit’s finances and increase public awareness of its programs.

Money from the event, which runs from 3 to 8 p.m., will go to the CAC’s operations and the old Gothic building’s costly maintenance projects.

“We have a lot of needs, and we want to raise community awareness of us,” she explained. “I love this building and am excited to share it with the community.”

Earlier this year, the condition of the CAC building coupled with the harsh winter forced the organization to end its residency program.

“This move not only adversely affected our many resident artists, but also resulted in the loss of our main source of income,” according to the CAC’s Web site. “While our long-term goal is to bring back our residency program, our short-term goal is to regain revenue by increasing our studio rental, bringing back our educational programs, and making meeting and event spaces available to the community.”

The event kicks off at 3:30 p.m. with a tour of CAC led by its founder, Pat Tansey, who will relate the history of the complex, which was built by Ursuline nuns and was home to Mary Manse College, a Catholic women's school, from 1922 to 1975.

At 4:30 and 7 p.m., The Birds Eye View Circus will perform in the center’s Lois M. Nelson Theater. There will be aerial stunts, stilt walking, fire-eating, and acrobatics. The circus has been conducting classes at CAC for children and adults since 2012.

At 5:30 and 6 p.m., there will be a mini-ghost tour with Chris Bores, who has joined the arts center as its resident ghost expert. Mr. Bores is the founder of Haunted Investigators, a paranormal team, and has posted his experiences with the ghostly world on YouTube. CAC’s home has long been said to be haunted, and Mr. Bores will explore this history.

Finders Keypers also will be played. For $20, participants receive a key to one of the arts center’s many rooms. The challenge is to find the door their key opens. Each room will contain a door prize, and one winner will get the grand prize of an iPad.

Contact Carl Ryan at: carlryan@theblade.com or 419-724-6095.