A Celebration to Remember: BBK Commemorates Chicano Art & Culture at Riverside Art Museum’s Cheech Center Opening
Firm Supported The Cheech Through Sponsorship, Pro Bono Work and More; Retired BBK Partner Honored for Efforts
Best Best & Krieger was pleased to support the highly anticipated June 18 opening of The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, which is a public-private partnership between the Riverside Art Museum (RAM), comedian and philanthropist Cheech Marin, and the City of Riverside.
As a Gold Sponsor and long-time RAM partner, BBK was pleased and honored to join the Cheech’s pre-opening reception on June 16 and fundraising gala on June 17. The firm is also proud to have supported the opening through pro bono legal services, board involvement, individual attorney donations and other support. Retired BBK Partner and former RAM Board President Michelle Ouellette received a special acknowledgement award at the gala for her significant role in making The Cheech a reality. See some of the firm’s opening weekend photos here.
“With the large Latino community in the region, as well as the State, it’s vitally important to reflect its art, as well as its history and culture,” Ouellette says. “This is one of the most important cultural developments in the region in many years, and I was honored to be a part of it.”
The Cheech is considered to be the nation’s premier center for Chicano arts, and will welcome more than 100,000 visitors annually. Named after Marin, a world-renowned collector of Chicano art, The Cheech is a 61,420-square-foot center housing hundreds of Chicano-inspired paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures.
“The opening of The Cheech is a tremendous milestone for arts and Chicano culture,” said BBK Of Counsel A. Haviva Shane, who serves on the RAM’s Board of Trustees and played a role in planning for The Cheech. “It was truly an honor to help RAM bring this vision to life and I enjoyed celebrating with my colleagues at the beautiful gala! I am proud to practice with a firm that recognizes the value in arts, diversity and community collaboration. BBK’s support has gone—and will continue to go—a very long way.”
The fundraising gala included a VIP cocktail reception, dinner, awards presentation, live performances, and both live and silent auctions. The opening garnered significant national media coverage from outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times and others, and has been hailed as a “game-changer for Chicano art.”
