Auction Items To Highlight Craftsman Farms Gala
By Vonda Givens, Executive Director.
For the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, autumn means it’s time for our biggest fundraiser of the year: The Craftsman Gala.
Set for Saturday, October 7 at the beautiful Mountain Lakes Club in Mountain Lakes, NJ, this year’s Gala is co-chaired by Eliane Talec of the Rago Arts & Auction Center and John P. Walcher of the John Toomey Gallery.
For this special evening, we’re working on not-to-be-missed live and silent auctions, which will include a VIP package for the 31st National Arts & Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn (pictured below), Grueby and Marblehead pottery (pictured), the 2017 Stickley Collector Edition Cabinet from L. & J. G. Stickley (above), and generous gift certificates from Rago Arts and Auction Center and John Toomey Gallery. You can check out the auctions for yourself at SMCF Auctions!
Bidding is open to all and we’ll be adding more great items as we get closer to October 7. Tickets are available at The Craftsman Gala and why not join us for the whole Stickley Weekend while you’re at it?
And as excited as I am about this event—and want you to feel the same!—I hope you’ll be equally thrilled by our reason for fundraising. In the end, at the heart of our fundraising efforts is our mission to make sure the property will continue exist for future generations. To that end, I want to share more about what we’re raising funds for, or put more accurately, what we’re raising funds to protect.
Authenticity. This one word succinctly captures one of Craftsman Farms’ most important qualities. Its evident authenticity is fundamental and vital to its future. The property’s carefully laid out grounds, its buildings and their interiors, from the barn and cottages to the iconic Log House, all point back to the vision of its founder Gustav Stickley. These distinctive features indisputably tether the property to him.
Authenticity is powerful but it must be protected. The funds we raise to support the operations of the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms are used to protect the authenticity of Craftsman Farms—that protection includes vigilant and thoughtful preservation of the buildings and grounds, careful protection of the museum’s collections, and the conscientious preservation of the ideas that shaped Stickley’s plans for the property.
This authenticity is what we’ll be celebrating at The Craftsman Gala with attendees from all over the country. I hope you’ll join us!
By Vonda Givens, Executive Director
