The Mimbres Region Arts Council has announced that the popular Black Tie Ball has been put on hiatus for this year. The Black Tie Ball has been an annual event hosted by the “Friends of the Black Tie,” as a major fundraiser to benefit the Arts Council.

“Unfortunately, there was no venue that could accommodate the event, especially after the very successful ball held last year at the Murray Hotel Ballroom,” MRAC Director Faye McCalmont said. “The ball last year really raised the bar on the number of people attending, the size of the dance floor and a stage for the band. The Friends felt the event could not move back to a smaller venue.”

The fundraiser, a formal potluck, has grown in popularity since its inception years ago as a private party in the small town of Gila. Sometime around 1996, organizers began having the event at the Buffalo Dance Hall, and it became known as the Black Tie at the Buffalo

“Some years the event was so crowded, there was barely enough room to move,” McCalmont said.

In 2006, the Friends of the Black Tie, who sponsored the event decided to begin charging for attendance and gave the proceeds to the Arts Council to help fund their ongoing programs. In 2010, organizers worked with the Murray Hotel to produce the event in the middle of their construction project.

The ballroom was transformed from a construction zone into a “beautiful gilded winter wonderland,” Dale Marcy, former MRAC board president, recalled. “It was beautiful and surely an evening attendees will long remember.”

Working with the Friends, MRAC has already reserved the date, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012, with the owners of the Murray Hotel for the use of the ballroom for the return of the event in 2012.

For more information on the event, or any MRAC program, contact the MRAC office at 538-2505 or stop by the offices in the Wells Fargo Bank Building at 1201 Pope St.