This past week, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding in historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC and AV Connections, Inc. was on hand to provide sound system rentals in NC for the gala and auction evening. One of the finest American museums on the subject of decorative arts, MESDA joined forces with Graylyn Conference Center - a quintessential example of the building-construction decorative arts in its own right - to host this lovely evening banquet for MESDA donors and sponsors.

With 280 guests expected, the size of the expected attendance greatly surpassed the number of people who could fit into Graylyn's historic Atlantis Room. AV Connections, Inc. was charged with assembling the AV in the Atlantis Room and broadcasting it to the terrace lawn outdoors. The Atlantis Room was important to the evening all on its own, as a prime example of Southern decorative arts. Hand painted to recreate an under the-scape, it is was a fitting place in which to note the accomplishments and growth of MESDA in its first fifty years and to plan for its future.

Turning fifty is a huge accomplishment for MESDA and its endowment which has been serving the growth of the Museum since 1960. Five years of planning preceded the opening of the Museum in 1965 by local antiquities dealers Frank Horton and his mother Theodosia Taliaferro. Seeing a void in both respect for, and preservation of, Southern decorative arts they endeavored for five years to fund the future museum endowment. With the support of the arts and collecting communities locally and throughout the South, the Museum sprung to life. MESDA continues to increase its collection and educational offerings and can be credited with bringing recognition to generations of Southern crafts-people.

In the permanent collection of MESDA an impressive array of decorative examples thrive under watchful eyes of dedicated cultural arts preservationists, including some of the South's finest works of furniture making, wood work, painting, and inlay design construction. And while this effort is celebrating fifty years, that is a relative youngster in the realm of museums preserving cultural arts. Creating healthy endowments and robust fundraising efforts are the key to museum survival and growing collections and offerings. This gala and auction evening was a resounding success, raising $212,000 for MESDA. As natives of the South, we could not be happier to report this was the case.

AV Connections, Inc. was pleased to provide two elevated screens with bright projectors and a sound system that extended outside into the soaring courtyard so those who could not be accommodated in the historic Atlantis Room were still a part of the event via the outdoor courtyard’s overflow space.

Audiovisual rentals for High Point Market are a top priority for AV Connections, Inc. every fall and this year is no different. From October 22 through 27th we are busy preparing booths, seminar areas, and trade sales floors at 220 Elm in High Point, NC to host the interior design world. 220 Elm is turned into a technological showplace for this event twice yearly and is ground zero for home entertainment industry market sales. High Point Market's March and October sessions take up ten buildings in the city of High Point, NC - the undisputed home of interior design presentation in the United States - and we are pleased to partner with many presenting businesses and concerns to brief the industry in the ever-fresh and quickly-moving home entertainment market.

Our trade show audiovisual technicians were on hand with several customer clients to create memorable, impactful booths and seminars to sell their products and leave the attendees with a cannot-leave-without-this-technology impression. After all, when you want to present great technology, you should have a great audio visual firm backing up your work.

Jay Seawall of our technology group helped to fill us in on the AV rentals work during High Point this fall:

"We returned again this year as a primary vendor of AV needs to several clients over the course of the High Point Furniture Market. Ranging from seminars to showroom displays, we saw plenty of sound systems, mounted TV’s, quick setup screen and projector packages, and computers for presentations and media playback in order to help sell an industry on the forefront of contemporary design with equally modern demands in the world of AV home entertainment. The primary housing of the week’s ventures, 220 Elm, hosted four seminars; each one saw a lightning fast set up and tear down as the space required flipping to accommodate use of the various showrooms before and after each seminar.

"We utilized a mobile cart solution that held wireless mics, a mixer, projection equipment, and two speakers in order to make this happen. Also, several showrooms featured video playback and presentation slides on our flatscreen LED TV’s, making the presentation feel right at home in a typical living room setup. AV Connections is proud to provide services that benefit the ages old industry of furniture making right in our backyard in High Point, NC."

Doesn't this gala look fantastic; we were thrilled to provide audio rentals in Winston Salem, NC for this recent affair at the legendary Reynolda House Museum and Gardens.

One of the finest historic sites in this part of North Carolina in which our corporate headquarters resides and where we were founded, the Reynolda House, is a tribute to the great builders and landscapers of the Guilded Age. Preserved largely through the efforts of events like these held yearly by the Reynolda House Foundation, one of the great eras in American structural history is stewarded and protected.

Once the home of Richard Joshua Reynolds (founder of RJ Reynolds, the local tobacco concern) and his wife, the Reynolda House was inherited by a daughter who first held the home as a vacation home and later took up residence full time. Loving the house as her decendents did, they undertook - under the guidance of granddaughter Barbara Babcock Millhouse - to create a foundation for the lasting preservation of the home and site, and the Reynolda House Foundation was born.

The site, largely still intact as originally constructed and completed in 1917 became a public museum in 1967. A viewing museum which now houses extraordinary works by American artists was additionally built on the grounds. The permanent collection houses some of the nation's finest works of art by preeminent hands. Revolving visiting collections are also part of the work of the museum. Regular visits to the collection will make you well versed in the great works of our national artists; once a year is not enough.

The gala you see here supports the efforts of the House to both sustain the house and landscape formal and informal gardens and to continue to broaden the museum collection and add revolving exhibits. AV Connections, Inc. was pleased to provide audio rentals for this years gala.

One of our best local meeting venues was back in action with our AV rentals in Greensboro at the Greensboro Marriott. Our presentation technology team was glad to provide rentals and technicians for the recent Guilford Child Development Luncheon in Greensboro, NC near our corporate hometown, Winston-Salem, NC.

AV Connections, Inc.'s President and CEO Brad Luckhart was pleased to receive this kind note from our meeting client on this day. We are always actively pursuing feedback after audiovisual rental jobs; part of our culture of excellence - and we are heartened our hard work behind the scenes pays off when our team members are recognized for their commitment. In this case, Trent and Kent, technical team members, were as always, star team players for this customer. The meeting planner noted so below with our great thanks:

Brad,

Trent and Kent were absolutely fantastic! I am very pleased with their work, and grateful to Ron Platt for recommending your company for this task. Trent and Kent are a tribute to you and your company. THANK YOU!

With regard to the mission of the charity holding this luncheon, it is also important to note how critical their role in supporting the children of Guildford County, North Carolina is on a daily basis. Guilford Child Development is a multi-faceted organization dedicated to creating an community where children are valued, nurtured, and fed. Perhaps it is easy for many of us, blessed as we are, to take for granted healthy hot meals and people with whom to read a book, but the need for caring for economically challenged children is real and with a moment of all our homes. Resources, medicine, food, literacy, and head start for success are all the tenets pursued by GDC. We remain grateful and moved by their work which is both vast and robust on behalf of the young lives in the care of this community.