Bash boosts arts

Kelsey DeBord

Staff Writer

It’s time to paint up your bodies with neon colors and glitter, to wear as much lace as humanly possible, and to put on the highest pair of heels in your possession. It’s time for the Beaux Arts Ball.

Beaux Arts isn’t just a night full of fun, it’s also for charity. This year, all of the proceeds from the ball will benefit Latitude Artist Community, LexArts, Chrysalis House and AIDS Volunteers Inc. (AVOL).

The organizations that will benefit from Beaux Arts present an array of worthy causes. Latitude Artist Community provides individuals who have any form of disability with the opportunity to make cultural, economic and political contributions through art and advocacy. LexArts promotes local cultural development. The Chrysalis House is a nonprofit agency that provides substance abuse treatment for women and their children. And AVOL collaborates with communities to address the AIDS epidemic.

The tickets are $25 ($30 at the door), and can be purchased at several locations, including POPS Resale, CD Central, Oneness Premium and then Pence Hall on the University of Kentucky’s campus. Tickets can also be ordered online by visiting http://beaux-arts-ball.org.

The ball will be held April 14 at Pepper Warehouse, located at 1200 Manchester St. Doors will open at 8 p.m. and the ball will last from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. You must be 18 or older to attend this event, and identification will be required. The shuttle service is $2, which, as the event’s website notes, is a pretty great alternative to drinking and driving. If guests choose, however, to take their own vehicle, parking will cost $10.

The event will feature artists including Spank Rock, Ana Sia, Corduroy Mavericks, Diminutive Remix and many others. The lineup is subject to change but promises to be entertaining all the same.

Tickets are going fast, so those interested should purchase one soon. In 2008, the Beaux Arts Foundation donated $23,000 dollars to student scholarships, the Hospital Hospitality House and the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program.

Since then donations have exceeded $118,000 total, supporting Lexington organizations such as the Lexington Community Action Council, Moveable Feast, the Children’s Advocacy Center, the Epilepsy Foundation of Kentuckiana and the Lexington Children’s Theater.

The Beaux Arts Ball is the largest student-run nonprofit organization in Kentucky, and it is enthusiastically supported by the local student population, including members of Transy’s campus.

“It’s almost impossible to put into words the amount of fun you have there,” said senior Cat Cummins.

“It’s really the greatest party in Lexington. Social inhibitions disappear even without the help of alcohol. We find pride in skin. We find pride in our identities. Everyone, in their own way, becomes themselves,” said alumnus Matt Bradley ’11. “And so we gather, unabashed by appearance, and celebrate the livelihood of man and woman, celebrating the fact that we’re alive, and then go home ecstatic for the next Beaux Arts Ball. It’s an experience quite separate from anything else out there.”

Death penalty proves fair

Transylvania students may have noticed a couple of controversial cases popping up in the news recently.

The first: Troy Davis, who was convicted of murdering a police officer in 1989. Though many people have protested against his ultimate sentence (death by lethal injection), a judge has ruled that he should die anyway.

The second: Cleve Foster, a 47-year-old former Army recruiter who was convicted of raping and murdering a woman he met at a bar in 2002. His execution has been delayed while the court considers his appeal.

Both are slightly similar cases with very different outcomes.