HUNTINGTON —  Bill Rawlinson was listening to NPR’s Marketplace a few months ago when he heard a story so good he had to share it, and better yet, work to make a great idea happen here.

The story was about St. Louis SLOUP, a group that meets once a month over soup, charges $10 a bowl, collects the money and after a vote from diners, puts the cash right into the hands of an artist to help fund a community project.

First birthed in Chicago, that community-fueled dining/art movement has popped up in cities such as Portland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn, Baltimore and Jersey City, N.J.

First tossed out at Create Huntington’s Thursday night Chat ‘n’ Chew session, the Creative Arts Funding Endeavor or C.A.F.E. Huntington, is now working on its third monthly dinner to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund art projects.

For the first two months, C.A.F.E. has put $280 each into the pockets of Huntington visual artist Joe Cox, who is using the money to fund a one-man art show, and July’s winner, Huntington Dance Theatre, which is using the money to help pay for dance instructors during the company’s summer intensive.

The winners get the money and are to report back to C.A.F.E. within four months as to how their project went.

Rawlinson, who designed the C.A.F.E. website, said one of the best things about C.A.F.E., is that anyone can help.

“There’s no barrier to entry to help people since it’s $10 — that’s a good easy price point,” Rawlinson said. “We threw out the idea and everybody was excited about it.”

Artful-minded Huntington resident, Simone Kompanek, who has been a part of Create Huntington’s Thursday night Chat ‘n’ Chew  sessions at the Frederick Hotel, loved the idea and has spearheaded the effort.

She built C.A.F.E. a Facebook page, organized the events, and cooked the sold-out June meal for 28 people that included spicy banh mi sandwiches, which are a vegetarian Vietnamese street food, with chicken kabobs and a side of rice, and washed down with spiced apple iced tea.

“I had been looking for a new project,” Kompanek said “I had been all about the dog park but the Park District took it over, so I was looking for somewhere else to help.”
Kompanek has also found many kindred spirits to volunteer as hosts, as cooks and in preparation and cleanup.

This past Tuesday night, Shelly Keeney and Dominique Wong, partners in the Proctorville-based Yellow Goat Farm, brought over a fresh spread of yogurt and goat cheeses that included Chevre with blueberry basil jelly, Chevre with local honey and walnuts, Chevre with sweet and Thai basil, herb tea, homemade breads and pasta and more.

Keeney, who often goes to the Chat ‘n’ Chew sessions, said that providing the C.A.F.E. meal was a way that they could support the arts as local farmers.

“I love meeting all the people, and you meet these people who are going to do something great with the money,” Keeney said. “It’s just a great idea.”

That sentiment is shared by many of the cities best known artists such as Carter Taylor Seaton, and arts administrators such as Margaret Mary Layne, who came out to dine and support the grassroots effort.

“You might not think $300 is a lot of money but it is and it might make the difference between something happening or something not happening that was going to be really cool for the community,” said Layne, who is executive director of the Huntington Museum of Art.

Laura Finlay, assistant director at Huntington Dance Theatre, said every little bit helps in their efforts as a non-profit organization promoting and teaching dance.

“I have a real job and worked about 75 hours a week,” Finlay told the crowd after winning on Tuesday. “Everyone here volunteers, and Huntington needs things like this, and we need every penny.”

Kompanek said one of the great things so far has been the sheer eclectic span of the artists who have presented.

“For the first one Joe was a multi-media artist and our other artist (George Palton) was a solo tuba player,” Kompanek said.

July’s presentation included: local author and poet Doug Brooks, who often works in fostering the arts with kids in the Fairfield community and who is trying to get funding for an Art and Drama Expo; Thomas McChesney, who wants to fund a series of acoustic music performances in Merrill Park, a small neighborhood park near his home in Highlawn; Huntington Dance Theatre, which is hosting a summer dance intensive for dancers, and Charlie Del Papa, who has an idea to fill the floodwall with digital screens that would scroll with beautiful images of West Virginia.

While many of the other American cities doing these type of dinners have a permanent location, C.A.F.E. has been looking at organizing the dinner parties all around the city.

The first was at McClelland Park (formerly 27th Street Park) along the Ohio River in the Highlawn neighborhood, while the second was hosted downtown across from the Cabell County Courthouse at Huntington Dance Theatre, which has been in the community since 1981.

Four folks who were at the July dinner, Tom and Sheri Pressmen along with Jess Pressmen and Jay Fox, have already stepped up to host and cook the August event. It is set for 6 p.m. Aug. 23.

Thomas McChesney, who helped start Create Huntington, said C.A.F.E. has an amazing start and has from its birth been a beautiful and vibrant enterprise.

“It’s been two months into it and it’s already amazing,” McChesney said. “NPR did a piece on St. Louis when they had raised $280. We did that much with our first one, and it’s just been a blast. Tonight it really struck me when Doug and Laura (Finlay of Huntington Dance Theatre) were talking that what we really have is another forum for getting these different artists to meet each other and work on things.”

Getting creative

Here’s a closer look at C.A.F.E. Huntington

WHAT IT IS: Started in June 2010, The Creative Arts Funding Endeavor or C.A.F.E. Huntington, is a monthly public dinner designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund art projects.

HOW IT WORKS: Folks pay $10 for a dinner (made by volunteers). Up to five artists are picked to present their ideas and at the end of the dinner, diners vote on what art project will get the collective money.

THE NEXT CAFE: Tom and Sheri Pressmen along with Jess Pressmen and Jay Fox will be hosting and cooking for the August event. It is set for 6 p.m. Aug. 23. They are having a taco bar with various goodies. Dinner seating will be 30 guest and five artist spots.

GET INVOLVED: Go online at www.cafehuntington.com to submit an art idea, to pay the $10 to be a diner at the next event, and to find out more about C.A.F.E.

WHAT’S BEEN FUNDED: The June C.A.F.E. diners chose a one-man art-show by Joe Cox, the July C.A.F.E. chose Huntington Dance Theatre. Both received $280 as 28 diners attended the sold-out dinners.

OTHER SUCH ENDEAVORS: Chicago’s Sunday Soup was one of the first such endeavors. Other groups have popped up in Portland, Brooklyn, Grand Rapids, Mexico City, Newcastle and Houston. Go online at www.cafehuntington.com to find links to the other cities’ projects.

Toril Lavender/ For The Herald-Dispatch

Participants in C.A.F.E. get food prepared by Shelly Keeney and Dominique Wong, partners in the Proctorville-based Yellow Goat Farm. They prepare a fresh spread of yogurt and goat cheeses at The Creative Arts Funding Endeavor or C.A.F.E. Huntington. The ladies volunteered to feed the sold-out dinner for 28 people. C.A.F.E. uses the money collected at each dinner ($10 a plate) to directly fund art projects.

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