Agricenter International, a not-for-profit organization with a rich history in advancing agricultural research and education, hosted a celebration of creativity and design this past week, known as the Arts by Design fundraiser.
Presented by First Horizon, Arts by Design is a curated series of events and presentations designed to highlight Memphis' interior design community and support the local arts community. The event ran from April 3 through April 7, featuring vignettes and art activations in a gallery showroom format.
Founded in 2016 by Greg Baudoin, an interior designer, the production has raised over $910,000.
This year, the event was led by stylist Amy Golden, HGTV Design Star's Carmeon Hamilton and Ann Parker of Parker Design Studio.
CEO of Arts Memphis, Elizabeth Rouse, said, "The idea was to bring together a lot of different people to highlight the creativity of the interior design and art community and to raise funds for Arts Memphis."
Baudoin expressed his amazement with the work of the Memphis interior design community and felt inspired to hold an event to showcase their talent. This year marks the fifth year of the event, and in terms of donations, it reigns as the most successful.
This year, there were 23 spaces at the event, including five emerging designers and five retail spaces, which were both added this year. One of the spaces was designed by Selena Mcadams, a graduate of the University of Memphis's interior design program, who has her own interior design company, Spruce.
"It's been very successful as far as attendance and participation. We have more vignettes than we've ever had, and we have raised over $200,000 this year," Rouse said.
Arts Memphis says its purpose as a granting organization is to grow the foundation of art for our city with diligent, thoughtful, diverse and intentional support.
Their mission statement reads, "While we have distributed over $94 million since 1963 to artists and arts organizations, our support is not simply through good stewardship of donor dollars, but also by providing financial guidance, organizational advice, marketing support, and networking opportunities and connections."
