Artist Input

For the 10th anniversary of Power Ball—the fund-raiser for (and at) the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery—organizers wanted to take Thursday's Decadance-themed event back to its artist roots. "I think we've been criticized in the past for not involving artists, and it's getting more corporate, as most fund-raisers do over time," said event co-chair Kenneth Montague. "The idea for the 10th anniversary was to involve artists, and we also gave out a lot of complimentary tickets to bring them back on board." (An event called the D-List Ball took place Thursday night as an alternative—BlogTO called the Power Ball "pretentious" in its comparison of the events.)Along with greater artist participation, the event had a new ad campaign by Smith Roberts and photographer Daniel Ehrenworth. "The Power Ball started out edgy and crazy," said Tony Hewer, development and marketing coordinator at the Power Plant, a public contemporary art gallery at Harbourfront Centre. "For our 10th anniversary, we felt we needed to rebrand and go back to the roots and original style of the fund-raiser, which is part of the reason we tagged it 'the original contemporary art party.'" Hewer described the three ad-campaign photos for the event as "eye-catching and a bit out there"—they included a guy waking up from what appears to be a one-night stand with a sculpture. More than 3,000 posters were put up around the city.

A V.I.P. reception kicked off Power Ball 10 with the local band Sunshine State playing a set and DJ Barbi ushering in ticket-holders with upbeat tunes like "I Will Survive." Later in the evening, the band Let's Go To War (described as "electro funk/hip-hop" and recently signed to Last Gang Records) played while guests filled the lit-up dance area in the LePage Gallery. "We wanted to reintroduce the dance element, and we made it easy for people this year with a considered dance floor, which we haven't had before," said Montague.

The event featured six artist installations in the Canadian Tire Gallery, including a collection of gilded gold frames by Jade Rude and a minibar (housed in a small faux-brick structure) by Dean Baldwin. Burlesque dancers performed on an elevated stage in the middle of the bar in the red-lit McLean Gallery, decorated with velvet draping, black beaded chandeliers, a mirrored bar, and a runway with 10 mannequins dressed in fashions by Hugo Boss—the event's lead sponsor—filled the main hallway. "We're delighted that there are corporations like Hugo Boss that will give generously to contemporary art when it's a little bit of a safer marketing bet to go with some of the other institutions in Toronto," said Montague, who planned the event with two other chairs, Paul Bain and Elisa Nuyten, a committee, and the staff at the Power Plant. (The planning started in December.)

A tented outdoor area included a Navan-sponsored bar with orange lighting and white patio furniture and flowers. Downtown restaurants Nyood and Kultura (both headed up by chef Roger Mooking) provided hors d'oeuvres like vegetarian samosas with honey yogurt and tandoori beef with coconut and tamarind, while cupcakes from the Queen of Tarts and chocolate from Soma rounded out the desserts. The event raised $200,000 for the gallery's future exhibitions and public programs, and attendance peaked at 1,500, the largest number of people to attend the Power Ball to date.