Art With Heart

Artrageous has long established itself as one of Nashville’s foremost gala charity events. It has also gained regional—and even national—recognition as a distinctive party opportunity for the socially inclined. More importantly, it is an impressive fund-raising tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The unusually festive and redoubtably mobile Artrageous M.O. hasn’t changed over the years: partygoers paying top dollar embark on a Saturday night bus tour of Nashville’s highest-profile art galleries, partaking of food, drink and music along the way, while surveying and purchasing fine art in all media. A percentage of the proceeds are funneled through the galleries and find their way into the coffers of Nashville CARES, Middle Tennessee’s leading community-based nonprofit AIDS organization.

 

This Saturday night’s Artrageous—the 19th such affair—features a James Bond theme, in which each participating gallery provides an ambience cued to one of the locales of the superspy’s many exotic adventures (Moscow, Athens, Las Vegas, etc.). Other new wrinkles include extended gallery hours (6 to 10 p.m.), with the event’s late-night party held for the first time at City Hall (405 12th Ave. S.), a 12,000-square-foot venue located in the heart of the trendy Gulch area. The tab for traveling with the beautiful people on the Artrageous bus is $150; a “budget plan” of $85 gets you general admission into the galleries, but you have to provide your own transportation.

 

“HIV/AIDS may not be the poster-child disease it once was, but it’s still here and it still afflicts people,” says local businessman Jon Glassmeyer, now in his fourth year as Artrageous president. “Artrageous is a great event that reminds us not to lose sight of the goal. We plan to raise $100,000 this year.”

 

Since its inception, Artrageous has raised more than $2 million, which has supported Nashville CARES’ mission to promote and participate in “a comprehensive and compassionate response to HIV and AIDS through advocacy, education and supportive services.” Unlike many major medically driven charities, which earmark contributions for research, Nashville CARES is committed only to a wholly practical, hands-on mission, serving free of charge anyone affected by HIV/AIDS who requires comfort or care.

 

In 2005, CARES—through the efforts of its 400 volunteers—ministered to approximately 1,400 men, women and children in all demographics, providing assistance with vital personal needs including housing, meals, rent and utility payments, health insurance premiums, transportation, counseling, daily chores and errands, social activities and information on HIV nutrition and treatment. CARES also plays a vital role in HIV/AIDS prevention throughout Middle Tennessee by way of adult and youth education programs and through distribution of more than 150,000 condoms, brochures and other prevention materials at local businesses.

 

Almost 5,000 Middle Tennesseans are currently living with HIV/AIDS, with about 300 new cases reported in the area annually, according to CARES statistics. In recent years, African Americans and Hispanics have represented 51 percent of new cases of HIV/AIDS, with women accounting for 19 percent of those recently diagnosed with the disease. Youth aged 13 to 24 account for 13 percent of new cases in the region. Even older Middle Tennesseans are not immune, with approximately 5 percent of new cases afflicting those age 55 or older. Unsafe homosexual behavior, still the most prevalent reported risk behavior, accounts for about 50 percent of new cases, especially among young men and men of color. More worrisome, the number of AIDS-related deaths has risen since 2000 after falling and being held in check for several years in the late 1990s.

 

Daniel Lai’s Dangenart Gallery, part of the more recent art colonization of the downtown Arcade Building, is a first-year Artrageous participant. Lai, with an academic background in linguistics and art history, is a multimedia artist himself and a native of Malaysia.

 

“In the 1980s we had the scare of AIDS,” says Lai. “AIDS sufferers were outcasts, and research was a secondary concern. In the ’90s there was more awareness and people were more careful about their behavior. Now we’ve come full circle, and there’s a younger generation that is not very concerned about it. It’s almost as if we’ve gone back to the ’80s, and no one wants to acknowledge it. HIV/AIDS is a more manageable disease now, but we can’t be reckless about it, either. While awareness is not new, it is a relatively new thing to use art as a tool to raise funds.”

 

Partygoers stopping at Dangenart will view what Lai calls “identity assertion art,” which revolves around themes related to homosexualilty, religion and eroticism.

 

“Artrageous is the best people-watching in town,” says Kim Brooks, owner since 1995 of Finer Things Gallery on Nolensville Road. “It’s a dynamite party, with people dressed in everything from tuxedos to leather hot pants to chains. It’s an evening when a lot of different kinds of folks get together. We’ll welcome upwards of 1,200 people at Finer Things during the evening, and it’s a sight to behold. Certainly from the perspective of a gallery owner it’s a great thing. It broadens our base and brings new people inside the art world. But Artrageous also brings together people who are like-minded in their concern for AIDS.”