Artone Furniture By Design located in Jamestown NY is a world class second generation commercial furniture manufacturer specializing in senior care, hotel and retail store fixtures. They are pleased to be part of the community having celebrated over 40 years in the area. Besides having supported the Pops they continue to show their support for other local organizations such as the National Comedy Center, the Chautauqua Regional Community Foundation and Special Spaces of Buffalo.
"We try to share everything we can with all of our employees. There were more than 50 Pops events during the 2015 season. With almost 100 employees at Artone we encouraged our employees to attend the shows and posted a spread sheet listing all of the concerts. My employees could choose the event(s) they wanted to attend and help fill our 6 sponsor seats each weekend", said Michael Calimeri. During the years the Pops was in Bemus Point, Artone brought customers, sales representatives and prospective clients to the Pops events.
In my 2015 interview with Mr. Calimeri he told me that he and Dan go way back prior to the floating stage when the Pops was on the roof. Dan shared his vision of expanding the Pops, having a floating stage, bringing in bands and the Light Up the Lakes concept over the 4th of July and Labor Day weekends. Calimeri saw the Pops as something for the folks in the area to attend and felt it was an awesome idea. They saw it come to fruition over the years. "Anytime we had an opportunity to support Dan .. we certainly did."
During a conversation between Dan and Michael, Dan learned Artone had purchased a company that manufactured metal chairs. Dan kept this information along with the idea of special chairs for Chautauqua Lake Choice in the back of his mind. When the thought of building chairs for the 4 judges to mimic the popular television show came to become a possible reality, Dan reached out to Michael and asked .. "Is this something that would be of interest to you?"
Under the guidance of Bob Bennington, founder of the acquired company Artone then set out to manufacture a special metal structured chair, in red! Artone used the same materials though in a different shape. With the history Artone had with the Pops Calimeri said .."Sure Dan, we'll do the chairs. We'll be part of this".
Designs and renderings evolved with communications that went back and forth to make sure everything was just right! Mr. Bennington brought upholstery knowledge to the project and they all worked with the concrete company to make sure the chair bases were placed correctly to support the 4 special swivel red chairs. In the end, they "fit like a glove".
"So, that's how it all came about. The project stemmed from our relationship of seeing great things being accomplished. We, at Artone, have been very fortunate to be a successful company because none of this can happen without money. Things just cost money, whether we donate the money or whether it's an in-kind contribution. In this particular case, we donated the chairs while paying our employees to do the work. Making the chairs was probably a 6-month process which included the actual inception, the meetings and the trial and error. Our company worked part-time on the chairs as we were in the middle of regular production with other products. Dan started talking about the project in the winter of 2014 and the chairs were ready in May of 2015. That's the chair story! A really great one between Artone and the Bemus Bay Pops. Just another one of Dan's visions that I've seen .. come to life", said Calimeri.
As a footnote, each swivel chair had a sponsor. They were ERA Team VP Real Estate, Ellicottville Brewing Company, Holiday Harbor and Shults Auto Group.
Be safe.
Pat Locke
Maestro Muse
