The Cultural Council of Palm Beach County today announced the 2018-2019 season of the popular series CULTURE & COCKTAILS. For the 14th season in a row, from November 2018 through April 2019, five fascinating conversations will be held at The Colony Hotel Pavilion, located at 155 Hammon Avenue in Palm Beach.
The theme of the 2018-2019 season of CULTURE & COCKTAILS At The Colony is Legends, as the series spotlights some truly legendary figures from the worlds of art, cinema and music.
November 5
BEHIND THE SCENES
A Conversation with filmmaker Doug Liman
Doug Liman is the successful film director and producer behind a long line of box office hits, including Swingers with Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, The Bourne Identity with Matt Damon, Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Edge of Tomorrow and American Made with Tom Cruise, and Fair Game with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. For TV and the Internet, his productions include Suits with Megan Markle, The Wall, The O.C. Impulse, and other series and commercials.
Interviewed by Ellen Liman, painter and owner of the Liman Gallery, Palm Beach
January 7
COLLAGE MIRAGE
A Conversation with artist Bruce Helander
An arts critic and writer, curator and creative talent, Bruce Helander has been hailed as "the most recognized and successful collage artist in the country." A former White House Fellow for the National Endowment of the Arts and winner of the South Florida Cultural Consortium fellowship for professional achievement in the visual arts, he was inducted into the Florida Artist Hall of Fame in 2014. His work is in over 50 museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and other prestigious institutions.
Interviewed by Deborah C. Pollack, art historian, gallery owner, and author of several books including Palm Beach Visual Arts
February 4
CLASSIC FILM, FINE WINE & HIGH END DESIGN
A Conversation with real estate developer, film producer/distributor and vineyard owner Charles S. Cohen
President/CEO of Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, which owns 12 million square feet of commercial real estate in Manhattan and design centers in NYC, Southern California, Houston and South Florida, Charles Cohen also heads Cohen Media Group, which produces and distributes Oscar-winning films (Timbuktu, The Salesman). He bought and restored the classic Quad Cinema in Greenwich Village, recently purchased the world famous La Pagode cinema in Paris, and has plans to replace the former Carefree Theatre in West Palm Beach with a multi-theatre mixed-use development. In 2016, he acquired Chateau de Chausse, a 135-acre vineyard and winery near St. Tropez. In January 2018, Cohen was named Chairman of the Board of FIAF (French Institute Alliance Francaise), the leading French cultural center in the United States.
Interviewed by Dr. David Breneman, President & CEO of The Society of the Four Arts
March 11
ART ATTACK
A Conversation with art collector Christine Aylward
Born and raised in China during the Cultural Revolution, Christine Aylward came to the US in 1986. Since moving to Palm Beach 20 years ago, she and her husband have taken an interesting path in learning and collecting art, focusing on Asian Contemporary. She is a former trustee of Norton Museum of Art, a current board member of SITE Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico and a Collectors Committee member of The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
Interviewed by Daphne Nikolopoulos, Author & Editor-in-Chief of Palm Beach Illustrated
April 8
PLATTER CHATTER
A Conversation with legendary broadcaster Dick Robinson
The owner of Legends Radio in North Palm Beach, Dick Robinson launched his broadcasting career in 1958 in Massachusetts and the first song he ever played on-air was Who's Sorry Now by Connie Francis. In the six decades since, Robinson has carved a stellar career that blended working for and owning radio stations, founding the Connecticut School of Broadcasting (the nation's oldest and largest group of broadcast media schools), founding the nonprofit Society for the Preservation of the Great American Songbook, and launching the syndicated radio/TV show Dick Robinson's American Standards by the Sea. This conversation is sure to attract some surprise musical guests.
Interviewed by Rich & Jill Switzer, celebrated cabaret performers and co-hosts of The Morning Lounge on Legends 100.3 FM
CULTURE & COCKTAILS is generously sponsored by The Roe Green Foundation, Roe Green, Founder, also The Gardens Mall, First Republic Bank, and Woolems Luxury Home Builders. Additional support for the series is provided by the Palm Beach Daily News, Legends Radio, and PR-BS, a Boca-based public relations firm.
Admission to each CULTURE & COCKTAILS event is $75 per person in advance and $85 at the door, and FREE for members of the Cultural Council ($250 level and above). All proceeds go to support the nonprofit Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. For membership information, please contact Debbie Calabria at 561.472.3330.
Each event will run from 5 to 7 pm, with registration and cocktails from 5 to 5:45 pm, and the "Conversation" from 5:45 to 7 pm, including audience Q&A. The Colony will serve complimentary beverages and an array of specially prepared hors d'oeuvres before each CULTURE & COCKTAILS conversation.
People interested in attending CULTURE & COCKTAILS can RSVP before each event by calling the Cultural Council at (561) 472-3330.
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