June 21, 2021 | By Laura Kepner
June 27 from 6:30-8:30 pm
Dunedin Fine Art Center Livestream
Details here
Still The One, Dunedin Fine Art Center’s 41st annual Garden Party is set for summer this year. Partygoers will share the virtual experience on the patio of the award-winning Donald Ross Golf Course.
Traditionally, the party has always been in spring, outside, at someone’s home on the waterfront or across the lawns of a group of homes.
“It has always been a great event,” says Ken Hannon, DFAC’s Vice President and COO. “It’s our largest fundraiser for the year. Last year we had just mailed out the invitations, the first week in March. The party got canceled so we went with a virtual event in June.”
That virtual event was a great success, and so DFAC’s board of directors scheduled another for this past April. But Hannon says, “We put it off ‘til June with the hopes we’d be in a better place to have more people attend. We are still following CDC guidelines and protocols.”
DFAC’s Garden Party has always been a time to come together, share food and music and yes, art. Last year’s event was already full when they mailed out the invitations. What organizers realized was that a percentage of people prefer a virtual event.
“What we do at DFAC is bring people together,” says Hannon. “We have always been about community, but this is about so much more — about fellow human beings. That is what we do and we’re trying to get back to it.”
The name of this hybrid in-person and virtual event, Still the One, is a tribute to brothers Todd and Christopher Still, who have been involved in Dunedin for years, and specifically the art center. Todd Still serves as DFAC’s Youth Education Director and Christopher Still is a visual artist. “They’ve been involved since the get-go,” Hannon says. The name ‘Still the One’ is about them but also about the art center – Hey we’re still here.”
Hannon believes that location always drives the event in one way or another. 2021’s reinvented garden party was moved to the Dunedin Golf Club because it could be hosted on the terrace. The course was once home of the PGA.
“The main event will be outdoors,” Hannon says. “Everyone will be overlooking the 13th green. It’s a beautiful course.”
Live music will be streamed and DFAC artists have really come through with beautiful, original auction offerings. “We have been photographing the art and it is incredible,” says Hannon. “We will certainly have all that feel about being a live event even if you’re in the virtual realm. There will be opportunities to bid on fabulous artworks and vacation packages and gift baskets to raise money for this much-needed art center.”
Perhaps the most unique auction item is an opportunity to putt for cash. Three high bidders, either live or virtually, will have the opportunity to putt for up to $10,000 — as long as they can be at the green in 15 minutes.
“Nonprofits have been hit hard,” says Hannon. “Our virtual event last year was the most successful of all of our garden parties. We are looking for that kind of involvement and excitement again. The support that people are bringing to us, they know we need it now.”
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In-person tickets are not available. You can purchase a ticket for the livestream event here. Once you have your ticket, you can browse auction offerings before the event.
