Ten years ago, against the humble backdrop of photographer Casey Kelbaugh’s backyard in Seattle, the non-profit phenom Slideluck Potshow was born with 50 witnesses' eyes trained on an old Kodak projector. The concept of strengthening communities through art and food caught on quickly and spread internationally. Last year, Slideluck Potshow broke the Guinness world record for the largest potluck dinner, held under the Brooklyn Bridge in the old tobacco warehouse in Dumbo. Tonight, founder Kelbaugh and the SP team are launching a new concept at New York’s Sandbox Studio, dubbed Slideluck. They’ll also be celebrating a magnificent ten years - hosting a fundraiser, coordinating an auction, and over-serving an art-centric crowd with libations from Brooklyn Brewery, Russian Standard Vodka, and wine club Noble Rot. Dinner will be served by Highlands Dinner Club. More from the founder on Slideluck after the jump.

Explain the new incarnation of Slideluck Potshow. Most of the events in New York over the last four years have been over 1,000 people, but still, they don’t feel like your typical art event. They have a real warmth. The big transformation is happening at our event tomorrow. This is the start of something new. For the last ten years, it’s been a slideshow of mainly local artists and a potluck dinner. What we’re launching now is simply Slideluck. It’s a collaboration with a farm or a supper club, or chef or restaurant. The food will be provided, so no one will be bringing food. The food’s still a critical component, it’s just a slightly different model, and one that we can charge for and execute in more places. We’re going to be collaborating with a lot of organizations that we’ve never had the opportunity to work with before. For instance, we’re going to work with the supper club Studio Feast. We’ll do a pairing of six slideshows and courses. The slideshows might be organized around an idea or geographical region, or a theme of some kind. The chef will interpret the slideshows into his courses. So we can all go on a little journey together. How has the concept spread internationally? Everyday, I get an email saying, “I heard about this,” or, “My friend went to an event in Paris and I think the concept would work here.” We just received requests for East Hampton and right before that, Kathmandu, Miami and Istanbul. All of the expansion has been by request. We’re very involved in the international events, and sometimes we curate the slideshows or bring in a guest curator. It’s usually very collaborative, and generally it’s localized, so a lot of the work comes from wherever the event is taking place.

What's the biggest compliment you've received after an event? One thing that I’ve heard countless times in many different languages is: Thank you so much for bringing this, we’ve never had anything like this before. People walk away very inspired. There are also a lot of long-term relationships, marriages, and babies that have come out of it. Maybe even some divorces.

The traditional gift for a ten-year anniversary is ‘tin or aluminum’. Ideal gift for your ten-year with SP? A robot to answer my emails. One that can multi-task, who’s super efficient, that can free me up a little bit to worry about the bigger details.

Biggest honor? Having Chuck Close in a recent show was a big deal for me. I worked in the Seattle Art Museum at the very beginning of my career, standing in galleries as a guard for one day a week. They had just installed a Chuck Close retrospective, so I was blown away and it had a massive impact on me.

Why people should cough up the dough and buy a ticket. I’m so honored and thrilled by the quality of the host committee, the artists involved, the slideshow, and the quality of the artwork that’s been donated. There are some really good deals to be had in terms of artwork, and it all goes to a great cause. There are 43 pieces up for auction, all lovingly donated by artists in our community from all over the world. The amazing selection can be viewed here. We’re an organization that has been building and strengthening communities for ten years. I can say with confidence that we’ve provided thousands of people with tens of thousands of moments of inspiration around the world. And we can’t continue to do so without support. We’re trying to move towards a more sustainable model and this fundraiser is a step in that direction. The food is going to be out of this world, and there will be a sick afterparty.

Buy tickets to the Cocktail Reception with Hosts/Artists + Dinner + Slideshow + Auctions here. And for Dinner + Slideshow + Auctions here.