The Toledo School for the Arts will be hosting their second annual Death by Chocolate Evening on Tuesday, June 13.
The event will be held at the soon to be dedicated TSA Sculpture Garden and serves as both a fundraiser for the school and a sneak peak at the sculpture garden’s first pieces, which were created by the school’s resident artists this spring.
Plenty of decadent desserts will be provided by The Cake Decorating Nook in Oregon, Premier Catering in Perrysburg and Superior Chocolates in downtown Toledo.
“We aim for 20 pieces of chocolate for every person that walks through the door,” said David Gierke, TSA director of development. “We try to kill them with chocolate,” he said.
Brena Reynolds, owner of Superior Chocolates, estimates that they will be donating nearly 10 pounds of chocolate as well as three and a half gallons of ice cream.
They will be making two types of truffles as well as two chocolates, a mint dark chocolate and a three layer chocolate with white, dark and milk chocolate.
“We participated last year and the event was very awesome and very well received,” she said.
Adding to the festivities were the sculptures created by resident artists at the school this spring.
The Toledo Community Foundation sponsored four artists, Kenneth Thompson of Blissfield, Mich., Marian Anderson of South Haven, Mich., Michael Sohikian of Genoa, Ohio and Adam Russell of Bowling Green.
Thompson’s piece is actually the arch visitors walk beneath to enter the garden. A model of the arch was unveiled at last year’s Death by Chocolate.
Thompson has 36 pieces displayed around the country as well as several works on display in Toledo, including the Vietnam War Memorial at the civic center. He is working on a Korean War Memorial which will also be displayed at the civic center, he said.
The arch is made of cast concrete and stainless steel, and Gierke estimated its value at $30,000.
Also on display will be a piece titled “Down to Earth”, which was created by Bowling Green State University graduate Adam Russell in collaboration with TSA students.
Carved from limestone, “Down to Earth” is meant to inspire students to “seek their grounding” and “is a rather spontaneous composition inspired by the urban landscape of the uptown district in which the piece was created,” Russell said in his artist statement.
Also on display will be Sohikian’s piece, “Man with Iron Legs,” and a cement piece by 83-year-old Anderson, who draws inspiration from abstract expressionists and minimalists.
Death by Chocolate starts at 7 p.m. and goes until 9 p.m. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased by phone at 419-246-8732, ext. 217.
The dedication of the TSA Sculpture Garden will be held two days later on the 15th and is free to the public.
