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Fundraiser includes silent auction, performance by Livingston Taylor

Guests look on as HCA director Kelly Grill gives a presentation during the organization’s Decade of Dreams fundraiser celebrating its Hayden Rowe Street campus last year. FILE PHOTO/JOHN CARDILLO

The Hopkinton Center for the Arts will recognize its 15th anniversary next month with a night of celebration and fundraising.

Called Cheers to 15 Years, the event will take place Nov. 14 at the HCA’s Hayden Rowe Street campus. Director Kelly Grill said the evening will feature food and music along with other offerings.

“We’re doing a small art auction as part of it this year,” Grill noted. She also highlighted a gift card grab, entertainment by HCA community members and a review of milestones from the organization’s first 15 years.

Ahead of the fundraiser, the HCA will launch a silent auction. Starting Nov. 1, the auction features items such as Broadway experience packages, use of HCA event spaces for private functions, stays at hotels like the Woodstock Inn and sports tickets. One auction item Grill teased was a piano used in the recording of the band LCD Soundsystem’s “This is Happening” album, complete with certificate of authenticity.

Headlining the fundraiser will be musician and Berklee College of Music professor Livingston Taylor. “We were fortunate enough to get him,” commented Grill.

The HCA hopes to use the event to reflect on its past as well as the road ahead, said Grill. She added that the fundraiser aims to cover the remaining $600,000 gap in its operating costs not covered by program revenue. Funds raised support things like the HCA’s scholarship program, which the director said has seen increased demand.

“[We went] from $35,000 in requests last year to $80,000 this year,” Grill said, calling the increase a “sign of the times.”

The money also supports the growth the HCA has experienced over the last 15 years, according to Grill. She reflected on how the organization started off with two-and-a-half staff members and has grown to a staff of 20 and more than 100 teachers.

“We see over 45,000 visitors a year now from more than 300 communities and three different states,” Grill remarked. “People come regularly for classes from as far as Rhode Island and Boston.”

Added Grill: “It’s really been remarkable even to us just how the reach has grown.”

— NICK SCHOFIELD

Latest News

The Select Board on Tuesday decided not to vote on citizens’ petitions for Monday’s Special Town Meeting and agreed to have Hopkinton join a coalition of communities opposed to a proposed Amazon drone facility.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Elementary School Building Committee discussed stormwater runoff issues at the Charleswood site and approved paying for temporary paving on Hayden Rowe Street.

The Parks & Recreation Commission met with its vending machine and concessions contractors for Fruit Street on Tuesday to resolve issues with pricing and competitive sales.

This week’s Police Log features reports of a pursuit into the woods, a stolen lawn mower and a white dove hanging around Hayden Rowe Street.

Photo of the Day

Coco, a miniature dachshund, steps off the sidewalk to sniff some flowers.

PHOTO/AMIT JAGDALE