Our Generous Sponsors

Moran Edwards Asset Management Group of Wells Fargo, Charles and Virginia Jacobsen Charitable Trust, Accessorries Etc. Inc. Design Group Avard Law Offices, P.A., Naples Marco Island Everglades Paradise Coast, Judy Sproul The Jerry C. and Barbara J. Burris Foundation, Inc., Community Foundation of Collier County, The Rose Mary Everett Team Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation, The Jerry C. and Barbara J. Burris Foundation, Inc., Community Foundation of Collier County The Rose Mary Everett Team, Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation, Paula Robertson & Associates, Inc. The Ritz-Carlton Resorts of Naples, Wells Fargo The Private Bank, Merlin & Harriet Lickhalter Ivan Seligman, M.D., Robert & Mary Uek, Jeannette Boucher Myra and Van Zandt Williams, Jr. Fund at the Princeton Community Foundation, Euro Pianos Naples Arthrex, Cummings & Lockwood, Hahn Loeser, Martin Solomon Morton and Gustel Schreiber Morton Foundation Comcast, Gulfshore Life
honorary-chair-2012

Honorary Chair 2012

His Excellency Sergey I. Kislyak
Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States of America

ArtsNaples World Festival is delighted to confirm that Sergey I. Kislyak, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the U.S. will serve as the Honorary Chair of the 2012 Festival. He plans to attend the Ambassador’s Dinner, with his wife, on May 12, 2012.

ArtsNaples was introduced to the Ambassador through the Cultural Attache of the Russian Embassy. In August, 2011, the Ambassador invited Board President, Merlin Lickhalter and Treasurer, Rose Mary Everett to meet with him at his residence in Washington, D.C. The Ambassador expressed great enthusiasm about plans for ArtsNaples, and offered to be of assistance in promoting the Festival. He spoke of his personal interest in both jazz and cinema. He then described a new Russian initiative, sponsored by both the Embassy and the Ministry of Culture, to bring leading Russian films to the US, beginning with an inaugural event in September 2011 at the Library of Congress. The Ambassador invited Mr. Lickhalter and Ms. Everett to attend the gala event and they were very impressed with the program.

Ambassador Kislayk graduated from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute in 1973, as well as from USSR Academy of Foreign Trade in 1977. He has been an employee of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation since 1977. He served as the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Kingdom of Belgium and, simultaneously, Permanent Representative of Russia to NATO in Brussels, Belgium. From 2003 to 2008 he was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Kislayk holds a diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.