DESTINATION ARTINI
The fundraiser for the Bossier Arts Council will feature some creative concotions.
Competitors will bring their best spirited efforts to ARTini.
around us. It exists in so many different disciplines, and sometimes we forget that.”
One of the ways she seeks to remind us of art in our lives is the Bossier Arts Council’s [BAC] annual fundraiser called ARTini.
In case you’ve never heard of it, ARTini celebrates various forms of creative expression and encompasses the culinary, musical and visual arts by having local mixologists create signature martinis and compete for the coveted titles of Judges' Choice, Peoples' Choice and Most M’artisanal.
ARTini Committee Chair Emerie Holtzclaw explained the concept. It’s basically a cocktail-making contest among area bartenders to raise money for all the BAC programs. But like most martinis there’s a twist.
“Everyone knows the traditional martini is made with gin,” Holtzclaw said, “so when we say ARTini, it’s the art of a martini, but we use vodka. It is definitely a little more well liked, and it is proudly sponsored by Absolut.”
This year’s 13th annual cocktail competition will be held June 10 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
at Louisiana Downs Casino & Racetrack. The evening has been dubbed Destination ARTini. “It’s inspired by the 1980s Miami,” Pope explained. “If you think ‘Miami Vice,’ that would be the best thing to help people in choosing their outfits.”
If you go, you’ll get a painted martini glass and a voting olive for your $75 ticket price, according to Holtzclaw. What’s a voting olive?
“Every year, we have different restaurants and bars and casinos and hotels that participate by curating their own martini,” Holtzclaw said. “Everyone that comes gets their own voting olive and gets to cast their vote after tasting all of them and vote for their favorite martini. There is a voting box at every participant’s table. So, they go back to their favorite and cast their vote. We tally those votes at the end of the night. The winner [receives] the People’s Choice Award. We have some local celebrity judges, and so we’ll have a Judges’ Choice. We’ll also have a Most M'artisanal, which translates to the most creative.”
“We’re super excited about our competitors,” Pope added. “We have some of our area favorites like Fatty Arbuckle’s, but we also have some new area business like the III Amigos on the Boardwalk will be joining us. We have a lot of the mobile bartenders who are doing a lot of bartender catering; they’re going to be joining us this year.”
At press time, there were about 17 competitors lining up their best spirited efforts to capture the prizes. And they will be unique. Each year, BAC chooses a featured artist to highlight in the event. The artist creates all the awards for the event as unique pieces of art.
“This year, our featured artist is Paige Powell,” Holtzclaw said. “We felt like her art fit the theme extremely well.”
Pope said, “We decided we wanted to play with the ’80s and the color palette, all that good stuff. Paige [Powell] just popped out. Because one of my favorite pieces from her is of Cross Lake. It’s so simple, it’s just the bridge, but it has a special meaning to me and because her use of color and what she does with a lot of our favorite places in Shreveport/Bossier, it all just came together perfectly. This was the theme; she was the featured artist.”
Pope said once she notified Powell, the artist went into overdrive working on her cre-
The executive director of the Bossier Arts Council has an appropriate attitude about her calling in life. She says it’s her goal to “help the public connect to the arts and how it shows up in their lives. Art is all
PAGE 10 318 FORUM /May 31 - June 13, 2023
By Joe Todaro
