Joe Pantoliano hosted artHaus for Fountain House, the second annual Young Professionals Reception, an evening of art and performance at Marquee on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007. Glenn Close, a Fountain House supporter and volunteer, was also in attendance and posed for pictures with Pantoliano, who co-stars with Marcia Gay Harden in the upcoming film CANVAS about a family dealing with the challenges of living with mental illness.
Pantoliano and Harden researched their roles at Fountain House. “When Marcia and I left that day,” he recalls, “I turned to her and said, ‘I can identify with these folks more than I dis-identify with them.’ We wanted to tell this story with truth, humor, and hope. This is an ordinary family coping with an extraordinarily common illness. CANVAS is a little movie with a big heart.”
artHaus featured an exhibition of portraits of Glenn Close, Mick Jagger, Sting, Susan Sarandon and other celebrities by famed photographer Francesco Scavullo as well as artworks by Fountain House member artists represented by Fountain Gallery. Fountain Gallery, a not-for-profit cooperative representing nearly 40 artists living and working with mental illness. All Fountain Gallery artists are members of Fountain House, and they live with bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia or other chronic mental illnesses, as did Scavullo.
Event Co-Chairs included fashion designer Katie Zorn Hand, Elizabeth Pyne of Sotheby's New York, philanthropists Kate Allen and Sarah Goldstein, and entrepreneur Lil Phillips. The Honorary Event Chair was Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island.
Guests and Benefit Committee members included Byrdie Bell, Jennifer Creel, Mary Snow, Brooke Evans, Jeremy Goldstein, Ted and Lauren Duff, Ashley Goodale, Nancy Sheppard, Baker Woolworth, Heather Moosnick, and Maureen Kennedy.
