Popular artist, chef to lead event advancing ��recovery program

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Two talented South Mississippians who have earned accolades in the respective worlds of art and fine dining are combining their talents Feb. 12 for a special fundraiser event benefitting Mississippi State’s Collegiate Recovery Community.

Watercolorist Wyatt Waters and chef and author Robert St. John will headline a 100-chair, limited-seating public appeal titled “Arts and Action” at West Point’s Old Waverly Golf Club.

MSU’s Collegiate Recovery Community is organizer of the 4-6 p.m. event. A part of the University Health Services and the health promotion and wellness department, the CRC provides programs and initiatives to support and enhance individual student addiction-recovery efforts.

In addition to a sumptuous dining experience, “Arts and Action” will feature both live and silent auctions, along with several personal accounts of successful recoveries.

Tickets are $200 each and may be purchased at .

"Participants will enjoy a four-course meal prepared by Mr. St. John while viewing Mr. Waters’ paintings,” said Blake Schneider, CRC coordinator. The live auction of Waters' paintings will conclude the program, he added.

Schneider said proceeds from the gathering will go to recovering-student scholarships, adding that CRC’s “primary funding comes from individual donations.”

A Brookhaven native and Mississippi College alumnus now working from a studio and gallery in Clinton, Waters was recognized for lifetime achievements in 2010 with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

Distinguished by bright, brilliant and saturated colors, his varied creations have captured everything from small-town establishments and religious structures to scenes of everyday domestic life. For additional biographical information, see .

Born in Hattiesburg, St. John was a Mississippi State communication major in the early 1980s who left after a time to work at a hometown restaurant. He would go on to complete a degree at the University of Southern Mississippi and open a series of food-service and catering establishments.

Beyond food-themed books and newspaper columns, St. John is best known for the Purple Parrot Café that was honored with five four-diamond ratings by the prestigious AAA Travel Guide, which named it Mississippi’s best fine-dining establishment and the South’s second-best. For more, visit .

For more about the Feb. 12 scholarship-support activity, contact Schneider at 662-325-3192 or bschneider@saffairs.msstate.edu.

Complete details about the mission of MSU’s Collegiate Recovery Community are found at .

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