Galas jazz up the arts world

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/13/galas-jazz-up-the-arts-world/

May 13, 2009

RANDOM ACTS: Galas jazz up the arts world

Also on Saturday night, the jazzy theme continues at the annual Smithsonian Young Benefactors Ball, to be held in the Kogod Courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery. With the theme All that Jazz: Roaring Twenties, the event features as honorary guests social blogger Pamela Lynne Sorensen and NBC correspondent at large Luke Russert. Micro Strategy chief executive officer Michael J. Saylor has signed on as honorary patron.

Started in 1990, the Young Benefactors, also known as YBs, comprise about 1,000 young professionals with special interests in the arts, culture and history and advancing the Smithsonian Institution among their generational peers.

Kate Stilwill, communication coordinator for the YBs, says the jazz theme was selected for the event "because we wanted to remind everyone that it is possible to have fun during hard economic times," referring to the Great Depression that began in 1929.

She explains that the current economic climate has stifled ticket sales, so the host committee decided to lower the ticket price to $125 as a "last-minute promotion to get people in the door."

The evening, sponsored by Capitol File magazine, Heineken International and Ravenswood Winery Inc., will benefit the Culture4kids Fund, an organization that provides local children access to the Smithsonian's educational resources, including its summer camp program.