What began as a small fundraiser for Marshall Artist Series is now the region’s largest wine festival.
By Carter Taylor Seaton
HQ 108 | WINTER 2020
How does sampling great wine support arts education in schools? That’s easy: through Uncorked!, the celebration of high-quality wines paired with good foods. Last year, this fun event supported the outreach program of the Marshall Artists Series by bringing 20,000 students to the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center to see a concert, play, symphony, ballet and more. And, it was completely free.
Uncorked! is the brainchild of Terry Deppner Hardin, who suggested holding a wine festival when as a member of the organization’s board of directors she learned that the 83-year-old performance series had never held a fundraiser. Deppner Hardin decided the venerable series needed one.
No stranger to giving back to the community, Deppner Hardin has served on numerous boards over the years including Hospice of Huntington, the Huntington Area Food Bank, the Marshall School of Medicine, Little Victories Animal Rescue and the Huntington Symphony Orchestra. She has been recognized for her many charitable efforts: she’s been named Volunteer of the Year by both the Junior League of Huntington and the Huntington Museum of Art and received the Focus Award for Volunteer Service from the Women’s Philanthropy Society of Cabell Huntington Hospital. In 2009 she was named Citizen of the Year by The Herald-Dispatch. But the fundraiser she helped create for the Marshall Artists Series may be her most successful endeavor to date.
Originally, the multi-day event was called Kindred Spirits. Held first in people’s homes, then the Arcade on Huntington’s Fourth Avenue and then at Pullman Square, it sometimes included wine lessons taught by wine connoisseurs. In 2009 and 2012, one-off events included a bourbon, brews and BBQ event, a bourbon tasting and Jazzed Up Comfort Food with guest host Katie Lee. However, the name soon changed to Uncorked!, and the event moved to the lobby of The Frederick. Crowds filled the space to sample wines, grab a nosh and bid on intriguing auction items and experiences, all in the name of supporting the arts.
Although some may think the Marshall Artists Series performances are funded by the university or ticket sales, that isn’t the case. Production costs exceed $900,000 each year, and that’s a tough nut to crack. Ticket sales only cover about 85% of that, and for the first two years the wine festival covered the other 15%.
“In our more than eight decades of service, we have brought some of the world’s finest performers to Huntington in such artistic pursuits as music, dance, theater, lecture and film,” said Penny Watkins, executive director of the Artists Series. “But we needed to expand our reach, and the wine festival fundraiser helped us achieve our goals.”
The Artists Series was originally designed to educate university students by providing them free attendance to culturally enriching events, and that part of its mission has not changed. But as the Uncorked! event grew, Watkins felt compelled to add an outreach program for the region’s K-12 students.
“How are you going to develop your audiences of tomorrow if they aren’t getting exposed to the arts today?” she asked.
A perfect opportunity to do this came when Watkins brought Broadway’s Lin-Manuel Miranda’s early musical, “In The Heights,” to Huntington on a February day in 2012. This was long before he hit the big time with “Hamilton,” but 2,000 schoolchildren — 400 from eastern Kentucky — got to experience his genius at a 9:30 a.m. performance that day. Watkins took a risk on an unknown, but it gave a new audience a glimpse of the work that was to come, and it was free to each of them.
“Now, through a partnership with the West Virginia Board of Education,” Watkins said, “each year we choose events that students may find educational — whether it’s Tony Bennett or the Blue Man Group — and we go out to the schools, meet with the principals and offer them the chance to see the show. For Cirque Musica we had 400 schoolchildren in the balcony who didn’t pay for tickets, and their buses and drivers were paid from the outreach program funds generated by Uncorked! Following the shows, students complete a study guide developed by Marshall grad Leah Turley that serves as an evaluation for the program.”
The students’ enthusiasm for the shows is most evident. One child drew the entire drum-playing Blue Man Group; another said the show made him want to “jump up and dance.”
“The Marshall Artists Series makes our community more attractive, but most of all it uplifts the souls and spirits of so many people,” said Deppner Hardin. “It makes my heart happy to know that through Uncorked! proceeds, students are given exposure, some for the very first time, to a cultural experience they may have not had otherwise. The growth in popularity of Uncorked! is a testament to how giving the people in our community are.”
One of the program’s staunch supporters is Jacob Messer, the principal of Scott High School in Boone County, West Virginia, who brings 200 students annually.
“At Scott High School, we are very appreciative of Uncorked! and the Marshall Artists Series, because they enable us to take our students on fine arts field trips that we otherwise could not afford,” Messer said. “These trips are incredible learning opportunities for our students. For many of them, it might be the only time in their lives that they get to watch a ballet or hear an orchestra. They also get to see the beauty and majesty of the Keith-Albee Theatre, which is worth the trip by itself. We cannot thank Uncorked! and the Marshall Artists Series enough for everything they do for our students.”
The outreach program also serves as a recruiting tool for the university. Marshall President Jerome Gilbert is a strong supporter of Uncorked!, having attended the event the last several years, along with various members of his leadership team.
“The Marshall Artists Series has been an integral and much-treasured organization in our community for more than eight decades,” Gilbert said. “In addition to the incredible entertainment opportunities it gives to the people of our region, I can’t emphasize enough the importance it has in exposing our students to some of the top performing arts in the world. Marshall educates students in traditional classrooms and on digital platforms, but there is something about a live performance that leaves an indelible mark on people.”
Last year, Marshall’s Athletic Department teamed up with Uncorked! when the event moved to the Big Green Room at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium. The sprawling space inside the football stadium was transformed into a winery.
“The intermingling of the toasty oak scent from the wine-stained barrels and the open bottles of wine gave the room that distinctive tasting-room aroma you get when you tour a California winery,” said Deppner Hardin.
They upped the ante on the wines as well, offering only samplings that either retailed for $50 or more, or had a 90-point or higher expert’s rating. The silent auction featured experiences like two tickets to Oscar de la Renta’s Spring 2020 fashion show or a three-day yachting getaway from Ft. Lauderdale. Deppner Hardin is quick to admit that it takes a village to pull off the event, thanking all the volunteers, food providers and wine distributors. While individual tickets to the event are available every year, table sponsorships bring in the most funds and usually sell out in just a few days. The 2019 event raised $100,000. In the 15 years since its inception, Uncorked! and its predecessor events have raised $650,000 for the Marshall Artists Series.
Plans for Uncorked! 2020 are still unfolding, but mark April 18, 2020, on your calendar. You won’t want to miss out on this unique way to help bring art and culture to students from kindergarten to college.
As the founder of Uncorked! and a wine enthusiast herself, Deppner Hardin is often asked to name her favorite wine. She said her answer is always the same: “The one that is shared with good friends, all the time raising money for a good cause.”
If you’d like to support the Marshall Artists Series’ educational outreach program, contact MAS, 400 Hall Greer Blvd., Huntington, WV, 25755, or call 304.696.3326.
