Writer to highlight museum fundraiser

Prize winning playwright Edward Albee will help the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art celebrate its first anniversary.

By TERRI D. REEVES
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 15, 2003

TARPON SPRINGS -- The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art is drawing on its far-flung connections in the world of arts and letters to raise money as part of its ongoing celebration of its first anniversary.

On Feb. 22, a black-tie fundraiser, For the Love of Art, will be held in the Tiffany ballroom at the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa, 25 Belleview Blvd., in Belleair. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, arguably one of the most influential playwrights of the 20th century, will attend the event, which begins at 6:30 p.m.

At 2 p.m. on Feb. 23, Albee will give a talk entitled "The Playwright vs. The Theatre" in the museum's auditorium, 600 Klosterman Road. Tickets cost $10 for museum members and $12 for nonmembers. Reservations are recommended.

"It is very exciting for us to have someone of that caliber as part of our event," said Leepa-Rattner spokeswoman Jody Sherman. Officials said tickets for the lecture are nearly sold out.

Albee's most recent work, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, is on Broadway and stars Sally Field and Bill Irwin. Last year, it won the Tony Award for best play. Albee, 74, is best known for his one-act play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The museum, located on St. Petersburg College's Tarpon Springs campus, opened on Jan. 22, 2002, and features the artwork of Abraham Rattner, a 20th century abstract expressionist.

Albee and Rattner were friends. They hobnobbed in the East Hamptons of New York in the 1970s, when it was more of an artists colony rather than a playground for the rich and famous. They and other artists of the era would gather at Guild Hall, the center of intellectual dialogue, said Leepa-Rattner museum director Lynn Whitelaw.

A private reception with Albee will be held prior to the dinner at 6 p.m. Tickets to attend the private reception and the gala are $250 a person. Tickets for the gala are $150 per person.

Besides dinner and dancing, the gala will feature a silent auction for travel packages, golf packages, restaurant gift certificates and original artwork by some of the museum's featured artists. There also will be an opportunity to win a $10,000 necklace or a trip to New York.

For tickets, call (727) 712-5762.

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