Hope For Them Foundation Presents Holiday Toy Drive Sat, December 17,7:00 pm - 11:30 pm Gallery 151

[Mitchell Acks]

HopeForThem Holiday Toy Drive for the Children of Haiti HopeForThem was able to unite the worlds of art and philanthropy in a festive holiday toy drive. The HopeForThem Foundation had a toy drive on December 17th, 2011 from 7:00pm to 11:00pm at Gallery 151, premier pop up gallery gallery,132 West 18th Street, hosted by Ines Ferre of CNN, benefiting the school children of Carrefour, Haiti and im.material global.

Painters Ari Lankin and Borbay teamed up with talented artists and great organizations to benefit school children of Haiti for one night of festive holiday philanthropy. Lankin and Charity Lankin has live-painted for charities including Broadway Cares NY, Broadway Cares Las Vegas. Additionally, he has donated work for auction to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Doug Varone and Dancers, and Jewish National Fund. Borbay and Charity Borbay has live-painted for charities including Broadway Cares NY,Broadway Cares Las Vegas and We Love Japan. Additionally, Borbay has donated work for auction to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Children of Armenia Foundation, A.C.E. and The Skin Cancer Foundation.

Each artist will create a four hour painting during the festive toy drive on the night of December 17th, 7-11pm.

Proceeds from the paintings will benefit the Hope For Them Foundation. Exclusive paintings by William Quigley and Jean-Baptiste Frants were auctioned off.

The HopeForThem Foundation is a non-profit organization that delivers aid to disaster-stricken areas around the world.

The diverse crowd enjoyed the food prepared by Alison Price Becker and Chef Robert Gurvich, soon to open the new restaurant Alison Eighteen,artisan wines from Evening Land Vineyards, inspired cocktails by St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur to the.music by DJ’s SKY Nellor and Super Jaimie. There was a live performance by upcoming singer and Hollywood star Kate Nauta; best known for her performance in the movie Transporter 2.

The attendees enjoyed the Wonderlost Exhibition inspired by the magical surrealist character that refused to grow up, Peter Pan. Each featured artist tells a story about an overcoming, a rebirth, a coming of age, or about their own ability to mischievously beguile the audience's perceptions.

Special thanks to the generous support and sponsorship of Michael Namer and his company Alfa Development , Chelsea Green at 151 West 21st Street, Ben Lang and Cole Blumstein, producers of the event and Alison Eighteen.