Baptist Art of Caring returns to Shelby Farms
Now in its 27th year, the event and art auction benefit Baptist Memorial Health Care’s free community grief services
The Mid-South is in full-bloom, and spring’s arrival marks the perfect time to join Baptist for a lively lakeside soiree to support a vital community resource.
Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation is gearing up for the 2026 Art of Caring auction, benefiting the Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief. It’s slated for Thursday, April 16, 6-8:30 p.m., at the FedEx Event Center in Shelby Farms Park, with a special VIP reception for sponsors and artists from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Situated on Hyde Lake, the venue’s spectacular sunset views make it the ideal spot to dance the night away to live music by The Gold Standard Quartet or enjoy cocktails and conversation on the patio.
Now in its 27th year, Art of Caring has grown into one of the Mid-South’s premier art auctions, where guests can bid on works of art in various mediums — from oils on canvas to glass and wood — while mingling with the talented local and regional artists who created them.
Miranda Griffin, a mixed-media artist based in Memphis, Tennessee, has been involved with the event for the past decade. This year, she has donated an original 3-by-4-foot canvas titled Beauty Beyond the Chaos.
It symbolizes the layers of our lives. Our lives are chaotic, but when we stand back and look at them as a whole, there's beauty within them.
This year’s media sponsor is WMC Action News 5, and longtime Chief Meteorologist Ron Childers will serve as Art of Caring’s emcee.
The 2026 party theme is “Santorini Sunset,” and guests are encouraged to wear semiformal attire in white or bold colors. A heavy hors d’oeuvres menu will feature Mediterranean delicacies, such as gyros, pasta salad, falafel with tzatziki, chicken shawarma and a hummus bar, and guests craving a sweet treat can customize their own take-home cannoli, choosing from a variety of toppings and fillings.
A flower bar will allow party guests to create their own colorful, complimentary mini bouquets to take home as souvenirs.
This event has grown every year and keeps getting better and better and drawing more supporters.
Missy Rainer, who, along with her husband Jimbo, has supported Art of Caring for the past 14 years said increasing community awareness and raising funds for Baptist’s free bereavement counseling is paramount to her as a donor.
They have great counselors and their doors are always open. It’s a wonderful service to our community, but there’s a wait list because so many people are dealing with grief and need that support.
More than 334 guests attended last year’s event and auction, which raised nearly $128,000 for the Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief, where children, teens and adults can receive free grief counseling.
Proceeds from Art of Caring have allowed Baptist to provide free grief counseling services to thousands of people in our community and send more children in need of healing to Camp Good Grief.
I've gone to counseling myself when family members and friends have passed, so the whole concept of what they do is very meaningful to me.
Tickets to Art of Caring are $50, which includes food, drinks and complimentary valet parking.
In addition to art, auction items will include gift cards and experiences, such as massages and rounds of golf.
Those who can't attend can view auction items and bid online beginning at noon on Thursday, April 9, and winning bidders can pick up their items at the event or arrange for pickup later.
Art of Caring is generously sponsored by the following:
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About Baptist Centers for Good Grief
Baptist Memorial Health Care offered Camp Good Grief, the first grief camp for children in the Mid-South, in 1999 and opened the Baptist Trinity Center for Good Grief, the region’s first comprehensive grief center for children, teenagers and adults in 2005. The center moved to Collierville, Tennessee, in 2010 with the new name Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief. In 2017, Baptist recognized the need to expand its grief services and opened two new bereavement centers — Baptist Centers for Good Grief, Milla’s House in midtown Memphis, Tennessee, and NEA Baptist Center for Good Grief in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In 2023, Baptist opened Dorothy’s Cottage, an expansion of the grief center on Baptist Memorial Hospital-Collierville’s campus. Milla’s House relocated to The Front Porch, a community gathering center in East Memphis, in 2025. These four locations make up the Baptist Centers for Good Grief, the first and only comprehensive bereavement center to offer free year-round grief services in the Mid-South.