BUTTE — The Imagine Butte Resource Center is hosting a masquerade ball to raise funds for the arts, featuring performance art, fine art sales, and handmade masks created by local artists.
The event, organized by the Phoenix Arts Alliance, takes place March 7, starting at 5 p.m. Costumes or masks are required to attend, and masks made by local artists will be available at the door.
Denata Bercier, a participating artist whose stage name is Gizaagi'in — meaning "love" in Ojibwe — created a fairy rat dragon mask for the event.
"I'm making it because I'm in love with rats," Bercier said.
WATCH: Masks, art & a $250 prize — Butte's masquerade ball is March 7
Bercier said she drew inspiration from her pet rats and dragon drawings, but her main motivation for participating is to support the art center.
"I think it's really important to keep funding the arts because it's how children learn and the elderly keep their brains active," Bercier said.
Gwendolyn Chiocote, president of the Phoenix Arts Alliance, said the center has served the Butte community for roughly 2 decades.
"The Imagine Butte Resource Center has been around for a couple of decades, and its main focus is to provide accessible, free, low-cost art space for the community to come and gather," Chiocote said.
The Phoenix Arts Alliance is the nonprofit that supports the art center, which includes a print studio, a darkroom, and a non-commercial art gallery. Chiocote said proceeds from the fundraiser will help secure the print studio so members can access the space seven days a week.
"This is the only functioning printshop in Butte and one of the only remaining darkrooms available in the state, so keeping us alive and giving people somewhere to go and create and have fun and create community is really important right now," Chiocote said.
The event will feature performance art from Queer Butte and fine art sales in the Foreground Gallery. A $250 grand prize will be awarded for the best mask.
"If you want to create a costume and a character, come on over. Let's play," Chiocote said.
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