Saturday night, March 20th was a cool and rainy spring night in St. Louis, but that didn’t stop seventy or so young professionals from gathering at the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) in University City for the COCA Junior Board’s first-ever fundraiser, “COCA Immersion”.

The event was casual, with guests moving between a food table (fantastic catering by Butler’s Pantry), two drink tables (courtesy of Major Brands), guest seating, and COCA’s Millstone Gallery.

Performances were given by COCA’s a Capella choir, and performances will subsequent group instruction were offered by hip hop and tango dancers.

Despite the motion blur in the following photo, I was neither hip hop dancing nor tango dancing. In fact, I wasn’t dancing at all – I was just unable to control  my enthusiasm for the art project we were each invited to help create…

We were each invited to paint one small canvas of a larger mural created during the course of the evening. The mural project was facilitated by St. Louis artist Dennis DeToye.

Here’s my contribution to COCA’s new mural – Tile #78:

***

The Center of Creative Arts is located at 524 Trinity Avenue in University City, St. Louis, just off of the Delmar Loop. COCA enriches lives and builds communities through the arts. For more information on COCA, visit them online.