By Wickham Boyle
Too often we hear about how we don’t get along. We hear about the goals of business being at odds with the needs and desires of a community. But sometimes an event appears that is really at the confluence of public and private good; a win-win situation where every party walks away glowing, happy and satisfied.
Such an event was held last Friday night at the Hudson Street offices of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The work of twenty brokers from a cross section of Elliman offices around New York City and Long Island were on display.
There were oils, water colors, photographs, pencil drawings and even sculptures lining the walls of this office space. All done by brokers.
Some of the artists like TriBeCa resident Ruth Hardiger are more famous than others, but the show, which was curated by TriBeCa brokers Lida Drummond and Robert Morrison was an even handed success. Morrison has been a broker for Elliman for seven years. The idea for this art show came to him four years ago and the project has been running strong ever since. The annual event features the work of brokers who are also artists and all the proceeds, let me stress every single penny is donated to The Church Street School for Music and Art.
According to Morrison, “the event was born because we needed to tie into something important with this art show. We are all very children-oriented at this company, we are about finding homes for families, so we wanted to fund something local so we can continue to be very involved in the neighborhood,” Morrison said.
There was a brisk business going on that night, with both neighborhood residents and guests from around the city buying artwork.
“We all know about Church Street and what a great job they do, with this show they can hang some of their art and also the music students perform so we really get to support them with donations, but also show by example what the school achieves.”
The performers for the evening were vocalist Elizabeth Romero, and violinist Elizabeth Kierstead, a 16-year-old student. Wilson Montuori a gifted guitar teacher accompanied both of them. The students received very warm reception from the over 200 gathered at the event. The audiences toasted and applauded the young performers.
According to Lisa Ecklund-Flores, the director of the Church Street School, “The event has, to date, raised over $6000 and the sales are still going on for another week. This collaboration between the brokers, and the school touches us and is so important for our school. For people to offer their art, their services, their space and their very warm hearts to us at Church Street like this every year makes us all feel that the choice to be in TriBeCa, to stay here, is exactly right.”
Both Ecklund-Flores and Morrison hope that the event will continue every year and that the moneys garnered will continue to increase as word of mouth spreads and turns this into a must-attend event.
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