Empty Bowls Offers Feast for the Senses
News Release
2,500-plus bowls for guests’ keepsakes, 40 restaurants offering soups and desserts, celebrity-signed bowls in live auction, raffle for airline and sports event tickets and more
Empty Bowls, benefiting Tarrant Area Food Bank, is an extravaganza of visual and culinary arts. In its 14th year, the event features an abundant selection of bowls and other art crafted by talented artists of the greater Fort Worth area, plus tastings of savory soups and delectable desserts of more than 40 Fort Worth chefs, restaurants and culinary schools.
Empty Bowls 2016, co-presented by GM Financial and Albertsons/Tom Thumb, is Friday, Feb. 19, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Amon G. Carter Exhibits Hall at Will Rogers Memorial Center, 3401 Lancaster Dr., Fort Worth 76107. General Admission tickets are $60 and Individual VIP tickets, which allow entrance to the event 30 minutes before doors officially open, are $150. Tickets can be purchased at tafb.org/tafb-events, or by calling 817-857-7137. With one dollar, Tarrant Area Food Bank can provide five meals worth of nutritious food.
For the price of admission, each guest samples tastings of delicious food and searches tables laden with art to select the perfect keepsake bowl from a selection of 2,500-plus distinctive pottery, glass, wood, metal, fabric and paper pieces created by professional, student and hobby artisans. In addition, guests can bid in silent-auctions for art-gallery jewelry, two- and three-dimensional art by local artists and such things as foodie experiences ranging from a dessert of the month for a year to a tour and tasting at a local cheese–making dairy farm.
The Celebrity Bowls Live Auction is being presented for the fourth consecutive year at Empty Bowls 2016. The auction features autographs of national and local celebrities on bowls representing the celebrities’ talents. A sampling of the celebrity signatures include those of Stefon Rishel, the 2015 Fort Worth Top Chef; country music stars Clint Black, Vince Gill and Lyle Lovett; actor Jason Alexander of the “Seinfeld” television series; and TCU Coach Gary Patterson.
Other celebrities who have signed bowls include Anne Perry, internationally best-selling author of historical detective fiction; Kinky Friedman, humorist, musician and perennial political candidate; Pink Martini, an orchestral group playing classical, Latin, jazz and classic pop; and, signing the same bowl, 10 Colonial PGA Tournament golfers.
Raffle prizes include four one-way Southwest® airline tickets, a 40-inch flat-screen Sceptre television and four Platinum Seating tickets with $120 credit for food and drinks for the Feb. 26 Mavericks game against the Denver Nuggets. Raffle tickets can be purchased with or without purchasing Empty Bowls admission tickets.
Local professional artists contributing their work to Empty Bowls include, among others: Janet Rodriguez/Hart Street Pottery, Pam Summers and Raymond Rains/Cliff House Studio, Nancy Lamb and Dan Blagg/Artspace 111, Holly Mack/Deep in the Art, Jo-Ann Mulroy/Trinity Valley School and Ken Orr/Ken Orr Pottery Studios. Also contributing bowls are Sandy Jarrell and his fellow members of Woodturners of North Texas, David Sieja/Yaki-tam Pottery, Denise Dyer/Metal Motif, Teresa Sanchez/Front Porch Studio, June Whitacre/ Tokyo Rose Clay Works, Carolyn Bernard Young/Earth to Art Pottery and countless others.
Frequent donors of cuisine for Empty Bowls in past years have included, among others, Jon Bonnell, Bob’s Steak & Chop House, Cast Iron at the Omni Fort Worth, Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, Grace/Little Red Wasp and Michaels Restaurant & Bar. Other frequent contributors of food include Tim Love’s Lonesome Dove Bistro, Blue Bell Creamery, Paris Coffee Shop, Reata Fort Worth, Riscky’s BBQ & Catering, Zoës Kitchen and Z’s Cafe & Catering.
Ruth Ann Kearley, chair of the Empty Bowls steering committee for a second year, describes Empty Bowls as “a unique event that delights the artistic eye, tickles the taste buds and helps feed hungry families, all at the same time. Each dollar you spend at Empty Bowls enables Tarrant Area Food Bank to provide food for five nutritious meals. That is amazingly good stewardship of donor dollars,” she said.
