Local artist William E. Kelly hosted an event last night at the White Buddha Lounge at Saigon on Fifth to benefit the underserved LGBT senior community in the city of San Diego.
Kelly’s exhibit opening, pushed back after an intended debut last week, featured 20% discounts on meals at the White Buddha Lounge. Patrons were also guaranteed that 30% of all art sale proceeds would go to the San Diego LGBT senior community – one that Kelly sees as incredibly underserved.
“The community is ill-prepared to meet the increasing burdens that a growing senior and LGBT senior population is experiencing or about to experience in increasing numbers,” Kelly explained to the San Diego Gay and Lesbian News. “This is a brewing crisis. We need to not only make the community aware of the challenges but bring them together to find reasonable solutions.”
For his 60th birthday, Kelly and his husband Bob Taylor requested donations in lieu of gifts in order to open the Kelly/Taylor Senior Assistance Fund at the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation – an organization with which Kelly has long been connected. A former board member and current honorary board member and volunteer at the foundation, Kelly has worked closely with the board and collaborated successfully with them to rais over $10,000 in the Kelly/Taylor Senior Assistance Fund’s first year. However, Kelly explained that “the recession hit and hit hard” and that “so many programs impacting all our community members were in danger of closing or severely cutting back.”
With recovery and continued assistance for LGBT seniors in mind, Kelly is thus donating what he calls his “New Millenium” art works to a variety of organization and events like last night’s opening. Look for his work next at the Equality California awards dinner silent auction on April 30, 2011.
