Last Thursday night, November 8th, over 250 guests attended the Adopt the Arts "Save the Arts" Fundraiser, featuring live performances by Christina Perri, America and Sussan Deyhim. The live auction was a lively success. A Slash signed guitar went for $5k, and ZZ Top and Aerosmith guitars went for $4k each.
The auction also featured art by photographers Neal Preston and Danish Saroee, and prints by Shepard Fairey. Three schools were adopted that night, including one by Asa Soltan Rahmati ("Shahs of Sunset"). They are still tallying the totals, but there was a significant amount raised that will help keep arts education in a number of LAUSD elementary schools for this next year.
Guests in attendance included: newly appointed International Arts Ambassador Bita Daryabari (founder and executive director, Pars Equality Center); Matt Sorum (Chair/co-founder, drummer of Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver), Abby Berman (co-founder), Adrianne Zarnegin (The Peninsula), Deborah Anderson (photographer/multimedia artist), and Johnathon Schaech (actor, “That Thing You Do”); as well as performers America (“Horse with No Name”); Christina Perri (“Jar of Hearts”); and Sussan Deyhim (“Argo” Score). Other talent will include: actor/dancer Chris Judd; Shaun Toub (“Iron Man,” “Crash”); Navid Negahban (actor, “Homeland”); Omid Abtahi (actor, "The Last Resort"); Maz Jobrani (comedian) and Asa Soltan Rahmati (“Shahs of Sunset”).
-- By Siamak Ghahremani