SAMSUNG Honors Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation at 14th Annual Hope for Children Gala

Star studded benefit raises $2M million while celebrating guest and partners who have helped improve children’s lives and communities across the United States

This past week, Samsung hosted its annual star-studded Hope For Children Benefit Gala (#SamsungGives) featuring celebrity guests Ben Stiller, Tony Bennett, Josh Lucas and Rob Thomas. The event, held at the Manhattan Center in New York City, honored Samsung’s guests and partners, including Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, who have helped to improve children’s lives and communities in the United States.

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: A view of atmosphere during the Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Samsung)

Samsung Hope for Children, the company’s global corporate social responsibility platform, brings together the company, its retail partners, and a network of charitable organizations associated with renowned public figures. Over the course of its 14-year history, Samsung philanthropic efforts have contributed more than $46 million helping more than 1,000 schools, hospitals, and foundations throughout the U.S.

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: Tony Bennett (C) and The Roots attend Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Samsung)

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: Rob Thomas, Boomer Esiason and Tony Bennett attend Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Samsung) 

Make It Right, founded by Brad Pitt, was honored with the “CHAMPION Of Hope” Award for the organization’s efforts building hundreds of solar-powered, affordable homes for families in need around the United States. Ben Stiller presented the award to homeowner Leslie Archie, who talked about her journey and the impact the organization had on her community, the Lower 9th Ward, after Hurricane Katrina.

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: Ingrid Michaelson performs onstage during Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Samsung)

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: Noah Syndergaard and Henrik Lundqvist attend Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Samsung)

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: Demi Lovato performs onstage during Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Samsung)

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: Boomer Esiason, Demi Lovato, Rob Thomas, President and CEO, Samsung Electronics North America Gregory Lee, Tony Bennett, President and COO, Samsung Electronics America Tim Baxter and Josh Lucas attend Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Samsung)

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: Ben Stiller and Tony Bennett attend Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Samsung)

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 17: Ben Stiller and Boomer Esiason attend Samsung Hope For Children Gala 2015 at Hammerstein Ballroom on September 17, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Samsung)

With more than 700 guests in attendance, the event raised $2 million to benefit children’s health and education programs. One hundred percent of the gala proceeds and additional funds raised by Samsung throughout the year under its Hope for Children initiative go directly to the charities. New to this year’s gala, lucky Galaxy Samsung+ members were invited to attend an exclusive gala party and live music showcase featuring Nick Cannon and Icona Pop followed by a concert performance by Demi Lovato.

“At Samsung, we believe that our business success goes hand in hand with being a good corporate citizen and it begins with children and young adults in the places and communities where we live and work,” said Gregory Lee, President & CEO, Samsung Electronics America. “Tonight’s gala pays tribute to building hope for children around the world by providing access, applying innovation to solve problems, and raising awareness in health, education, and community impact.”

The Peninsula Chicago And Pearl Lam Galleries Announce Art Installation With Renowned Korean Artist Choi Jeong Hwa In Conjunction With EXPO CHICAGO

To commemorate the opening of EXPO CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, The Peninsula Chicago unveiled Alchemy, a significant art installation by renowned Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa and curated by Pearl Lam Galleries. A celebration of Chicago’s place at the heart of the global contemporary art scene, the installation will be displayed in The Lobby at The Peninsula Chicago through March 20, 2016, as a part of The Peninsula Hotels’ global art and Breast Cancer awareness initiative, The Art of Pink.

The Peninsula Chicago debuts art installation by renowned Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa for Expo Chicago (PRNewsFoto/The Peninsula Chicago)

An artist, architect and designer of furniture and furnishings, Choi Jeong Hwa creates art from the most humble of materials, finding inspiration in soda bottles, shopping bags and colorful plastic dishes. Inspired by the harmony and chaos of the urban environment, he often goes outside the hierarchy of the museum by installing his pieces on their exteriors. He created a 10-story installation from 1,000 discarded doors and decorated Seoul’s Olympic Stadium with garlands made from 2 million pieces of trash, transforming the building’s surface into a glittering jewel. In other pieces, he explores ideas of artificiality and permanence through the use of plastic food and flowers. He declines to categorize his work, leaving the audience to define his pieces on a personal level. As his motto states: “My art is your heart.“

Renowned for his colorful installations using materials often sourced in Korean street markets, Mr. Choi has exhibited at the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Hayward Gallery in London and in solo shows at museums worldwide. Alchemy, his site-specific light installation for The Peninsula Chicago, consists of found LED lights, plastic bowls and steel in 24 “totem pole” pillars. Mr. Choi personally oversaw the installation of the work in the Peninsula’s main lobby, the heart and social center of the hotel.

EXPO CHICAGO/2015, The International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, is presented by Art Expositions, LLC. Now in its fourth year as a leading international art fair, EXPO CHICAGO (Sept. 17 – 20, 2015) is a four-day art event featuring more than 140 leading international galleries and offering diverse programming including /Dialogues, EXPO VIDEO and IN/SITU. Under the leadership of President and Director Tony Karman, EXPO CHICAGO draws upon the city’s rich history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community and inspiring its collector base. Vernissage, the opening night preview benefiting the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, took place Thursday, Sept 17, 6 – 9 p.m.

Additionally, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Mr. Choi has donated one of the pillars from Alchemy for the hotel to auction to raise funds for Chicago’s Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation.

The partnership with Pearl Lam Galleries is the latest representation of The Peninsula Hotels‘ ongoing support of innovative public art around the world. The group has collaborated with museums, galleries and private collectors on pioneering works by established masters and emerging artists at Peninsula’s 10 hotels in the United States, Asia and Europe. Programs include The Peninsula Hong Kong‘s partnership with the UK’s Royal Academy of Arts to a residency program for emerging contemporary artists at The Peninsula Beijing, to a rotating collection of significant contemporary works on display at The Peninsula New York and art-related Peninsula Academy programs in each hotel.

“We hope that this collaboration will contribute to Chicago’s position in the international arts community, and the growing recognition of our city as an arts hub,” said Maria Razumich-Zec, Regional Vice President and General Manager of The Peninsula Chicago. “Ultimately, we would like to realize a dream, which is to showcase pioneering public art that excites, challenges and spurs dialogue.”

San Francisco AIDS Foundation Launches Public Phase of $15 Million Campaign with $12.2 Million Raised

Campaign Funds New Center For Health & Wellness Named ‘Strut’; Relocation Of Programs Slated For October

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation launched the public phase of “The Campaign for Health & Wellness” having raised more than $12.2 million of its $15 million goal. The campaign funds the programmatic expansion and renovation costs associated with its groundbreaking new center for gay and bisexual men’s health and wellness at 470 Castro Street. The new center is named “Strut” and brings together the foundation’s well-known and popular free services for sexual health, substance use and mental health, and community engagement and support. Services are slated to move into the new space in October.

No city experienced epidemic levels of HIV faster than San Francisco. At the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, they work to end the epidemic where it first took hold, and eventually everywhere. Established in 1982, the mission is the radical reduction of new infections in San Francisco through education, advocacy, and direct services for prevention and care, confronting HIV in communities most vulnerable to the disease. More information about the foundation is available at http://www.sfaf.org.

The Campaign for Health & Wellness is a four-year, $15 million major fundraising campaign to establish the first-ever home for health and wellness for gay and bisexual men in order to help make San Francisco the first city to end HIV transmission.

“We’re grateful for the campaign’s tremendous early momentum—a clear testament to the hunger that exists in our community to make San Francisco the first city to end HIV transmission,” said Tom Perrault, Chair Of The Campaign For Health & Wellness and former board chair of San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “Major donors and institutional partners really stepped up during the quiet phase, and we’re excited to invite the community to join us, help forge a groundbreaking new model and ensure the programs are fully funded for years to come.“

Strut co-locates the sexual health services of Magnet, the substance use and mental health counseling services of Stonewall, and the community-building and support programs of Bridgemen and Positive Force. Two of the newest San Francisco AIDS Foundation programs designed to address the needs of young, gay and bisexual African-American men (the DREAAM Project), and men over the age of 50 (the 50-Plus Network) will also be located at Strut. The new, larger location enables the foundation to expand case management services by 25%, mental health counseling by 25%, substance use and harm reduction counseling by 50%, and HIV and STI screening up to 40%.

The name “Strut” was selected for its multi-dimensionality—it is both a verb meaning “to walk with pride and confidence,” and also a noun referring to a beam that provides structural support. The name and identity were developed Pro-Bono by Heat, a San Francisco-based creative agency. Heat’s yearlong brand development process was guided by primary and secondary research, interviews with community leaders, creative workshops with foundation staff and focus groups with clients and other community members.

“We knew we had tremendous responsibility to develop a new name as exciting as the innovative model it represents, especially considering the affection that exists in the community for our three program brands that will come together to form Strut,” said Neil Giuliano, San Francisco AIDS Foundation CEO. “Strut is celebratory, unique, a little quirky and memorable, just like San Francisco. That’s why it works—but at the end of the day, it’s not about the name, it’s about coming together to build a stronger, healthier and more vibrant community.”

Strut is a center for gay and bi men’s health and wellness, opening in the Castro this fall. (PRNewsFoto/San Francisco AIDS Foundation)

The new model at Strut was developed following a 2011 study by Bain & Company, a top management consulting firm. Bain worked with the foundation pro-bono to help determine how the agency could better meet the needs of gay and bisexual men and chart a path towards ending HIV transmission in San Francisco. The team identified a compelling need to co-locate individual existing programs serving gay and bisexual men, offer new programs to address unmet need and pivot away from a focus on disease identification and management towards a new model that promotes holistic health and wellness.

“Strut is a revolutionary new model for San Francisco and one that addresses a clear need—I expect that we will get between a third and half of gay and bisexual men in San Francisco coming through the doors of Strut in the very first year. Co-locating our services in a beautiful, larger, central community space will help us serve even more people with the sexual health, substance use, mental health and community programs we are known for. With the opening of Strut, we absolutely have the potential to make a positive impact on the lives of so many people in our community,” said Tim Patriarca, Executive Director Of Strut.

Naming opportunities exist for major donors within the building. Programmatic naming opportunities are also available. For example, the foundation is grateful for the support of the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which made a five-year pledge to support and secure naming rights to the 50-Plus Network, which will henceforth be known as the “Elizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network.”

Learn more about the campaign and get involved at http://strutsf.org/wellnesscampaign. To learn more about Strut and receive updates as it prepares to open, visit http://strutsf.org.

Boisset Collection launches ‘France. Small Towns, Big Wines’ Sweepstakes

Boisset Collection, in association with Atout France (the French national tourism organization), has launched an exclusive campaign inviting wine and travel enthusiasts to enter for a chance to win an extraordinary French gastronomic, wine and luxury travel experience. The ‘France. Small Towns, Big Wines’ Sweepstakes provides one lucky couple with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win a wine trip for two to France to experience all that the Boisset Collection of wine estates has to offer with exclusive privately guided visits to Boisset wineries in Burgundy, the Rhone Valley and Southern France.

Boisset Collection logo (PRNewsFoto/Boisset Collection)

Boisset is a family-owned collection of historic and unique wineries bound together by a common cause: authentic, terroir-driven wines in harmony with their history, their future and the land and people essential to their existence. With more than twenty historical and prestigious wineries in the world’s preeminent terroirs, including the Cote d’Or, Beaujolais, Rhone Valley, California’s Russian River Valley and the Napa Valley, each house retains its unique history, identity, and style, and all are united in the pursuit of fine wines expressive of their terroir.

Open to residents in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., entry into the contest runs from now until October 15th, 2015 and the Grand Prize Winner will be drawn at random on October 30th. The winner will receive two round-trip flights from the U.S. to Paris on Air France, rail passes for two, first-rate accommodations to stay eight days and nine nights across three vineyard-rich destinations, including a leisurely five-night stay at non-Boisset owned, Chateau Pape Clement in Bordeaux, as well as exclusive private guided tours and tastings at several Boisset properties, including; the oldest negociant in Burgundy, Bouchard Aine et Fils, and Premium Mousseaux producer, Charles de Fere in Burgundy, as well as visiting the gateway to the southern Cotes-du-Rhone, fortified stronghold, Bonpas, in the Rhone Valley and representing the finest expression of the Southern French wines, Fortant in Languedoc-Roussillon. A dedicated page on the Atout France website has been created for the competition as well as the hashtag, #FranceWineTravels. Each participant will enter the competition by visiting: www.boissetcollection.com/francewinetour.

As part of the competition, seven U.S. travel blogger/ambassadors are promoting these extraordinary wine regions of France by writing and posting about their personal travel experiences on the dedicated competition website, www.boissetcollection.com/francewinetour. In order for contestants to win the Grand Prize, they must vote for their favorite blogger/ambassador, based on their posts, photos and stories featured on the competition website from August 15th until September 25th. Last year’s competition was so successful that it captured over five-million impressions and nearly one-hundred and twenty-five thousand votes.

Upon launching the campaign, Boisset Collection Proprietor, Jean-Charles Boisset said, “We’re so excited to partner with Atout France on the ‘France. Small Towns, Big Wines’ Sweepstakes. When our guests visit our wineries it is always a unique, special, engaging experience and now we get to offer this dynamic visitor experience in partnership with Atout France to help promote the glorious wine regions of our incredible country and highlight our Franco-American heritage. The United States and France have long shared a rich history, spirit, culture and friendship, and we can’t wait to welcome these special guest winners to our magical Boisset estates to inspire their memories and dreams of France for many years to come!“

Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency, is the sole national organization responsible for the development and promotion of tourism to France. As an association of public and private interests, Atout France is charged with supporting tourism to France and assisting its partners internationally through its network of 35 offices in 32 countries. Atout France is also responsible for assisting regions, counties, towns and cities in the development and modernization of their tourism assets, as well as for administering France’s new hotel rating system.

“We too are thrilled to be partnering with Boisset Collection for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Atout France Marketing Manager, Tiana Gamez. “Boisset is world renowned in the wine industry and we felt that this partnership was the best fit to promote France as a wine tourism destination. With the more than seventeen centuries of combined history that unite the wineries of Boisset, plus the exquisite wines and the stunning landscapes from across France’s iconic wine regions, you have a spectacular travel experience that we are certain the winners won’t soon forget.”

For official rules and entry details, please click here.

For more information on France, visit the official Atout France website in the United States: http://us.rendezvousenfrance.com. To learn more about the Boisset Collection, please visit www.boissetcollection.com.