Gifts That Keep On Giving
Still looking for the perfect gift for that arts lover on your shopping list? Why not a 2002 Porsche 911 Twin Turbo Carrera? Arts Center Stage has one of these works of automotive art for sale at the unbelievably low price of $100. The bargain comes with a slight catch, natch: There’s only one vehicle, and several hundred other folks have plunked down C-notes in the hopes of being able to drive it home. Yes, it’s a raffle, one that the folks spearheading the creation of the Long Center launched back in August to raise funds for the proposed performing arts complex on Auditorium Shores. After 16 weeks, the raffle is about to wind up, and you have only until Dec. 18 to get in on the fun. As of Dec. 6, 1,515 tickets had been sold — far short of the original goal of 10,000 but still enough to add a worthy sum to the $61.5 million that has been raised to transform Palmer Auditorium. And Porsche or no Porsche, that’s what your hundred clams would really be giving the culture vulture on your list: a venue that will showcase Austin’s finest artists — and be a source of civic pride for all its citizens — for years and years to come.
By the way, we haven’t heard much of late about major gifts to the Long Canter campaign (though the announcement of a new $100,000 corporate gift is on the horizon), but that doesn’t mean the campaign is stalled. The publicity drive that Arts Center Stage started this fall has brought in a shower of smaller gifts, primarily in the $25-$100 range, from Austinites eager to see the Long Center built. Those are just the folks that Arts Center Stage is seeking to bring on board with its print and TV ads — and the ads are connecting. Michelle DeCrane, Long Center PR maven, reports that hits to the center’s Web site jumped from 53,000-plus in August before the campaign started to more than 120,000 in November, and Web site requests for more information about the project have increased from two or three a week to two or three a day. Are you involved yet?
This article appears in December 13 • 2002.