Cork & Fork has a Mediterranean twist this year with “A Taste of Italy,” 6-10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22.
“We wanted to change it up a little bit so it’s not just the same routine every year and the Friends Committee, the board members, thought it’d be fun to do a taste of Italy,” said Steve Whitworth, director of the Margaret Harwell Art Museum.
This year parking will extend from First United Methodist Church to the Rodgers Theatre. Parking lot will have signage and the Poplar Bluff Parks Department is providing golf cart rides to and from cars. Whitworth said a professional security firm will ensure everyone’s cars are safe during the event.
“It’ll say ‘event parking’ at the designated areas where they can park the car and wait for pickup or just walk on in, and we’ll have...a professional security firm out here because there’s a lot of foot traffic these days,” he explained.
Dinner is catered by Tasteful Creations and Wil Fischer is providing beer and wine. Dinner and drinks will be served in the Episcopal Church. Attendees can then adjourn to the Sculpture Garden for live music at desserts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 apiece or $35 for Friends of the Margaret Harwell Art Museum. Guests who want to skip dinner and go directly to the after party can purchase discounted tickets.
“It’s just $15 and you can partake in the wines and in the desserts,” Whitworth said.
Tickets are available at Whitworth’s Gift Chest Jewelers and the Margaret Harwell Art Museum.
Funds raised by Cork & Fork are used to maintain the museum, purchase new works for the permanent collection and form an endowment should the museum fall on hard times.
“If the city gets into financial strife at some point in time, unforeseen, we’re building up a legacy to endow the museum so that it keeps going on into perpetuity, because it’s a very important asset to the city of Poplar Bluff,” Whitworth noted. “People divert when they’re traveling through this corridor. They find that we had an art museum... And they’re always, always dazzled by how good of quality it is and are surprised that such a small town can have such a wonderful institution.”