Take a Chance to Win a Unique Hand-Painted "Joseph" Chair Beck Center Women's Board Puts The Final Touches On Painted Furniture Project
A Women's Board member adds her personal touch to the "Joseph" chair. (Photo: Janice Mastin-Kamps)
Members of Beck Center Women’s Board have been busy since November working on the Painted Furniture Project – a unique fundraising project to help support the arts center. The group is hand painting and decorating donated vintage furniture with detailed artwork and unique design elements borrowed from past Beck Center shows. The furniture will be raffled off in the coming months with all proceeds benefiting the arts education programs at Beck Center for the Arts.
Led by Women’s Board member and artist Janice Mastin-Kamps, who created the designs for each piece of furniture, volunteers Lee Ann Curry, Kate Mott, Karen Radcliffe, Bette Wohlgemuth, and a handful of friends have worked alongside Mastin-Kamps using their artistic talents to painstakingly paint and decorate these unique works of art. The ladies’ paintbrushes tell the stories of many of Beck Center’s acclaimed musical productions.
Inspired by Beck Center’s recent holiday hit musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the “Joseph” chair, the first in this series of hand-painted furniture, is ready to be raffled off. Tickets for the “Joseph” chair are $5 each and may be purchased at Beck Center for the Arts, 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood. The winner will be drawn at Beck Center’s Jazz It Up for the Season! party on Sunday, August 12 at Georgetown restaurant. Winner need not be present.
In all, the group has transformed five pieces of furniture into artistic masterpieces including:
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – an ornately hand-painted and richly upholstered chair
The Marvelous Wonderettes – a chair with bright motifs in paint and fabric inspired by early ‘60s girl-group songs
Willy Wonka – a chocolate-colored confection of a child’s chair
Spring Awakening – a royal blue high stool lavishly decorated with William Morris-inspired flowers and vines
Legally Blonde The Musical – a hot-pink school desk decorated with glitz, glam, and of course, ivy and law books
The group plans to create additional furniture pieces for the following shows next season: Xanadu, Annie, Next to Normal, The House of Blue Leaves, and Monty Python’s Spamalot. The Women’s Board is seeking additional donated furniture pieces in usable condition for this project. Please call Beck Center for the Arts at 216.521.2540, ext. 10 and leave a message for Janice Mastin-Kamps.
Founded in 1936, the Women’s Board of Beck Center, then known as Lakewood Little Theatre, is a volunteer organization that actively supports Beck Center for the Arts in its effort to create a community where everyone can be directly involved in the performing and visual arts. Through various fundraising activities over the years, the group has contributed over $200,000 and provided thousands of volunteer hours to support performances, programs and day-to-day operations at Beck Center. The group welcomes new members at its meetings every third Tuesday of the month, August through May, at 12 noon at Beck Center for the Arts. Annual dues are $20 for Active Members and $35 for Associate Members. For more information, please contact membership chair Bette Wohlgemuth at 440.808.8471.
Beck Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that offers professional theater productions, arts education programming in dance, music, theater, visual arts, early childhood, and creative arts therapies for special needs students, and gallery exhibits featuring regional artists.