Monday, January 20, 2014

Miles Davis Memorial Project to hold fundraising dinner on Saturday, March 22

The Miles Davis Memorial Project, which seeks to place a statue of the legendary trumpeter near his birthplace in downtown Alton, IL, will hold a black-tie fundraising dinner at 6:00 p.m., Saturday, March 22 at the Commons at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey.

The event will include a cocktail hour, silent and oral auctions, sit-down dinner, and a performance by the Third Coast Jazz & Blues Band. Pete Basola, formerly a jazz educator at Alton High School and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, will sit in with the band and give a presentation about Davis (pictured) and his music.

The project was announced in 2012, and so far, organizers say they've raised about $20,000 of the $150,000 needed to complete it, mostly from the sale of commemorative bricks and granite blocks that will be laid into the sidewalk surrounding to the sculpture. The commemorative bricks and blocks still for are sale, at $75 for a 4" x 8" brick and $400 for a 12" x 12" granite block.

Sculptor Preston Jackson, professor emeritus of the sculpture department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was selected last year to create the statue, which the committee hopes to have completed by year end.

Tickets for the Miles Davis Memorial Project fundraising dinner are $60 per person and $450 for a table of eight, and can be purchased by calling Pride Incorporated at 618-467-2375 or via email to pride at prideincorporated dot org.

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