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48 TWICE AS NICE TACA BY CHRISTINA GEYER F or The Arts Community Alliance (TACA), fall has become the busiest of seasons, filled with events and celebrations lauding its top supporters and the performing-arts groups it serves throughout the year. This year, the organization shook up its events calendar, kicking off the fall with the private, invita- tion-only TACA Appreciation Dinner at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. The dinner, which replaced the annual ticketed fund-raising gala, was launched as a way to luxuriously thank 200 of its most stalwart patrons. There were no asks for finan- cial contributions, no high-profile auction items up for bid. Rather, the evening unfolded as all good dinner parties do: a beautiful mix of attendees, paired with lively entertainment (the Turtle Creek Chorale garnered a pre-dinner standing ovation), and a divine dinner that took place throughout the entirety of The Mansion Restaurant. Another noteworthy moment came when TACA surprised the group by announcing this year's Silver Cup honorees: Margot Perot and J. Davis Hamlin. The duo will be lauded at the TACA Silver Cup Luncheon on March 18, 2019. A few weeks following TACA's donor dinner, it was time for Party on the Green — another calendar switch, as the event moved from spring to fall. The annual foodie festival, chaired by Ann Mahowald and Ann Whitley Wood with honorary chairs Mickey and Bill Lively, drew 750 hungry partygoers to Sammons Park at AT&T Performing Arts Center. The casual to-do was the TACA version of Top Chef, with 21 culinary gurus whipping up bites at various tasting stations. This year, TACA made another debut: in conjunction with chef Dean Fearing, TACA gave the inaugural Taste of TACA Award to chef Jeffrey Kollinger. Victor Parra, Tammy Gonzales at Party on the Green Mimi & Rich Sterling at Dinner Katherine Wynne at Dinner J. Davis Hamlin, Margot Perot at Dinner Jada & Conner Mowles at Party on the Green Dean Fearing, Wanda Gierhart at Dinner Sarah Hamlin, Katherine Reeves at Dinner Bill & Mickey Lively at Party on the Green Bill & Linda Custard at Dinner Annette Watkins, C.A. Anderson at Party on the Green Barbara Daseke, Ben Fischer & Laree Hulshoff at Dinner