Support the Arts with Cocktails and Dancing
Prepare to take a step into the past as Arts for All Nevada presents A Night at the Mansion, September 23, 2022, from 4 – 7 p.m.
Held at the Historic Lake Mansion in Reno, the event melds culinary endeavors with the support of arts and education, plus a fun cocktail competition for local distilleries and guests.
The evening begins with a greeting from one of Lake Mansion’s most famous residents, Jane Lake, wearing period clothing and meeting guests as they enter the front door. Since the building houses Arts for All Nevada’s daily operations, the event provides a rare opportunity to visit and explore this piece of Nevada’s rich history.
The first of its kind, A Night at the Mansion also is the organization’s first signature event in more than 20 years, and its sole adults-only occasion (guests must be 21+ to attend).
“We wanted to figure out a way to do something different with the mansion,” explains Jackie Clay, executive director with Arts for All Nevada.
Those who attend also will become judges in an exclusive cocktail competition, featuring samples from four local distilleries: Frey Ranch Farmers + Distillers, 10 Torr Distilling and Brewing, Seven Troughs Distilling, and Ferino Distillery. Each distillery was tasked with creating its own version of a signature cocktail to match the Lake Mansion’s Victorian history and architecture. Throughout the evening, guests will sample and vote for their favorite cocktails of the night, and the winning distillery will take home bragging rights.
In addition to the cocktail competition, a silent auction featuring floral designs, for which designers will create topiaries and cornucopias, as well as autumnal-themed art by local artists, will take over the property’s Horan Pavilion and add interest to the venue.
Arts for All Nevada also is working with the Culinary and Hospitality at Washoe County’s Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology. Students participating in the AACT program will prepare and serve appetizers, treating guests to passed hors d’oeuvres for the duration of the event. In addition, wine, water, and other non-alcoholic drinks will be available.
It wouldn’t be an Arts for All Nevada event without incorporating art-making activities into the festivities. All guests are invited to decorate small pumpkins with the paints, glitter, googly eyes, and other decorative items provided; guests can then take home the pumpkins as party favors.
“I really wanted there to be an art component,” Clay says. “This is what we do. We teach art.”
All of the proceeds from the event will be used to fund Arts for All Nevada’s Artist in Residency Program, which places teaching artists in special education classrooms throughout the Washoe County School District, a service Arts for All Nevada provides free of charge. The Artist in Residency program serves more than 400 youths with special needs at 22 sites throughout the region every year
“We think art education is incredibly important to all children in the area,” Clay says.
The organization itself is dedicated to filling the gap in arts education for all elementary school students in Washoe County, since the district doesn’t employ any art instructors in primary schools.
“If we don’t do it, no one will,” Clay says.
Tickets for the event are on sale at Artsforallnevada.org. Tickets are $55 per person. In all, 150 tickets are available for the event, but as Clay warns, “When they’re gone, they’re gone.”
