Columbus SOUP, the philanthropic crowd-funding organization, granted money to two local arts and culture groups at their quarterly dinner on Sunday. The 161 voting attendees to the event at the Columbus College of Art and Design’s Mind Market each donated a $7 minimum and voted to give the accumulated $1,243 to State of the Arts Productions, a nonprofit that puts together theatrical productions in areas that normally have little exposure to theater.
Five organizations and candidate projects were presented to dinner attendees including the Weinland Park Freedom Mural, Wild Goose Creative’s “One Wild Day,” the Transit Arts Program at Green Lawn Abbey, the UNCHAINED Human Trafficking Awareness Fashion Show and State of the Arts Productions. State of the Arts was not on the original list of candidate organizations when SOUP announced its choices earlier this month, but was brought in as an alternate when Urban Strings Columbus Youth Orchestra was unable to attend.
Money collected from a raffle sponsored by local businesses was granted to UNCHAINED, which came in second in the voting. UNCHAINED uses fashion shows and performance art to raise awareness about human trafficking and how to fight against it.
Liz Martin, SOUP’s executive director, was pleased with the dinner, calling it “our best event yet” and was equally happy with the venue at the CCAD Mind Market. Martin also pointed out that the dinner served as an excellent networking opportunity for the candidate organizations who did not receive grants.
“There are definitely a lot of awesome connections that are made,” said Martin. “That’s something that happens organically.”
Columbus SOUP is currently in talks to secure a date and venue for their next dinner, which they hope will come in November. Sunday’s dinner was sponsored by Celebrate Local, Piada, ZenCha Tea Salon, Passport Café and Jeni’s Ice Cream with the second place donation raffle sponsored by Rose Devore Photography, Poor Sparrow, Art.com and Little Star Cupcakes & Scones.
For more information, visit www.columbussoup.org.
Photo by Rose DeVore — Courtesy Columbus SOUP.