On October 13, 2018, Sharon Prince, Chair and President of Grace Farms Foundation, along with benefit Co-Chairs Jay Fielden, Editor-in-Chief of Esquire, and Peter King Hunsingerformer Condé Nast Publisher, welcomed more than 250 arts, culture, academic, architecture and business leaders, to the Foundation’s third anniversary celebration. The event at Grace Farms in New Canaan, Conn. Included a premiere of a new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and musician Caroline Shaw, featuring poetic text by Christian Wiman, a cello quartet from Yale Cellos, and vocal alumni from Yale Institute of Sacred Music and YoungArts. DJ Alexandra Richards culminated the evening with a one-hour set and dancing.
The Foundation raised $400,000 to forge new pathways to advance nature, arts, justice, community and faith, and to sustain the award-winning Grace Farms. Additional major gifts were also raised for international trainings to disrupt cross-border organized crimes, including human trafficking.
“We always imagined that Grace Farms would be a nexus to collaborate for good, but now we are seeing it come to life as an accelerator for good,” said Sharon Prince, Chair and President. “The ability of space to communicate has compounded our ability to create new outcomes in a democratic, civil, place of grace and peace for all”
Guests encountered soaring raptors with Mark Fowler, former Nature Initiative Director, and heard from Richard Wiese, President of The Explorers Club and Emmy Award-winning Producer.
“What I’ve begun to realize with some of the changemakers at Grace Farms is that you can take a difficult issue and you can address it in a constructive, positive way and get results,” said Richard Wiese, President of The Explorers Club. “Grace Farms is such a gift to this community, and the change that Grace Farms Foundation is instituting in the world is making a difference.”
Event sponsors included Moffly Media, Winston Flowers, BevMax, Half Full Brewery, Lagunitas Brewing Company, and Litchfield Distillery.
