Ten florists from Birmingham, Ala., recently got "arty" for a good cause.

On May 20, the 16th Annual Arty Party drew about 460 attendees and raised $60,000 for the Birmingham AIDS Outreach (BAO). The benefit featured artist Michael Marlowe and guest-auctioneer Sally Struthers, as well as the work of floral designers from Hothouse Design Studio; Uncut Flowers; Flowerbuds; Flora; Thomas Flowers; Norton's Florist; Lackey Floral Company; The Arrangement Florist; Dorothy McDaniel's Flower Market; and Continental Florist and Gifts. Tabletop designs from the 10 shops complemented the benefit's theme, Enchanted Dreams.

Payton Hilyer, the BAO' special events coordinator, says the theme was inspired by Marlowe's paintings of hazy, dreamlike trees and forests. It was this theme that led him to ask several different florists to design, rather than just one. "[In a dream] it's not one set look you see," he says. "You see many things."

And the florists rose to the occasion. To make his arrangement "look like it was growing out of the table," Andy Hopper, AIFD, of Hothouse Designs, an event veteran, used moss, driftwood, Dublin tulips and 'Freedom' roses. Meanwhile, Millie Radney of The Arrangement Florist created a design featuring a topiary with Asiatic lilies.

For the most part Hilyer chose florists for the event who are connected to the BAO (through previous event or volunteer work), but whose design work has not been featured recently at BAO functions. "The ones that participated this year were at the top of my list," he says.

For Millie Radney of The Arrangement Florist, the BAO was at the top of her list. "In the floral industry, we have people affected by [AIDS] -- and I wanted to give back," says Radney, "When you are in business, you have to give something back to the community."

Hopper says the high-profile fund-raiser also is a chance for participating florists to gain customers. "We always have [people come in] and say, 'We loved the work at [the event] because it's so different,'" he says.

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org

 

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