Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Spring Obsession 2017

2017 will mark the 20th Anniversary of Ironstone's Spring Obsession event.  Quite a wonderful history to this event.

Begun 1998, we were looking for a fun way to celebrate our Symphony Obsession Wine, Ironstone's number one best seller world wide.  Back then, the newest release came out right around spring time, perfect for a fun Spring Event.  Marketing joined in the planning and found many of the restaurants throughout the United States and Canada serving Ironstone's Obsession had outstanding chefs creating entres or deserts that were made with Obsession wine or paired with the wine.

Our first few years of the event included an International Chef Competition.  Chef's from all over the US and Canada submitted recipes for a main entree and or desert that was made with or paired with Ironstone's Obsession.  The two winning chefs were flown to Murphys for the Irish Days weekend where they presented free cooking demonstrations both Saturday and Sunday of the event.  That Saturday evening was an amazing Gala Dinner featuring the winning entree and winning desert, with both Chef's in attendance.  Ironstone's own executive chef prepared all the remaining dishes, all paired with the Obsession wine.  

Also as part of the Spring Obsession event we began an art competition with two divisions. The Open Division featured any subject matter - any media, excluding photography and digitally enhanced images.  (We plan on creating a photo exhibit in the near future.) Open Division awards cash prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes selected by some of Northern California's premier artists, educators and Fine Arts Museum Directors.

The Theme Division has featured daffodils with the winner featured on a limited edition poster that promotes the Obsession Wine. These posters feature the winning image and the winning artists name and are distributed by our marketing department throughout the US and abroad where Ironstone's Obsession wine is sold.  This winner is selected by the Kautz Family themselves and includes a cash award.

Past years, the Art Show featured a small reception for the artists on the Friday before opening weekend.  Always a fun intimate gathering in the early years, that recepting began to outgrow the Friday night spot and eventually took over the Saturday limelight when the Chef's competition was discontinuted.

Now one of the premier Art Competitions in Northern California, Ironstone's Spring Obsession Art Show is moving into it's 20th year in 2017!. 

Here at Ironstone, we are planning for a fun and exciting weekend of Fine Art and Artists!  Keep an eye here on this blog and on our Webpage for the official Art Prospectus / Entry Form which will be published for you to download.  Should be out early September.



6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love Ironstone, and would like to enter art for the 2017 celebration. Is there a date that I should be watching for the prospectus? Thank you!

Ironstone Museum said...

Yes, the prospectus for both the OPEN Division and THEME Divisions are both downloadable from this site. Just go to the pages above and download. If you have a problem, shoot us an email and we can send them to you.

Unknown said...

Is this show limited to paintings? I paint and also handcut stones and handforge one of a kind sterling silver jewelry pieces. Thankyou

Ironstone Museum said...

Dear Unknown, Open Division allows any media as long as it can be hung on the wall easily and does not protrude more than 3 inches from the wall. We have had metal sculptures, fabric art, shadowboxes and may other very interesting entries in past years. Hope to see your entry.

Unknown said...

Thank-you. I entered two Native American acrylic paintings. I will receive email as to acceptance or rejected for show shortly. Is that correct ? Thanks again. Suzanna Young

Ironstone Museum said...

Dear Unknown, Selection panels are busy at work reviewing the entries. As soon as all the ballots are in, we will be able to compile the results with notifications going out to artists mid next week.