Party people

Dinner Dates

Supporters of the Memorial Park Conservancy hit the trails and headed to the Forest Club for the organization’s annual Picnic for the Park event. Organic, free-flowing florals and a menu of comfort-food classics spoke to fun-loving and laid-back nature of the event, which also championed the progress of Memorial Park’s master-planned makeover. Meanwhile, an intimate dinner catered by Swift + Company toasted Rienzi’s 20th year as a part of the MFAH. Rienzi Society members contributed nearly a quarter-million dollars toward the acquisition of two 18th-century antiques.

Ann Bastian, Catherine Badger and Trish Millard at 'Picnic.'

Jim Stein and Julie Oliver at 'Picnic'
Party People
art

New Artist-Run Gallery Rises and Hits the Ground Running with Diverse Group Show

Sarah Sudhoff (photo by Katy Anderson)

SINCE THE 1970s, Houston’s cultural scene has only grown richer and more diverse thanks to the DIY spirit of its visual artists. As an alternative to the city’s major museums (which are awesome) and commercial galleries (again, awesome), they show their work and the work of their peers in ad-hoc, cooperative, artist-run spaces — spaces that range from the traditional white cube interiors, to private bungalows, to repurposed shipping containers.

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Art + Entertainment

Houston’s Grammy-Nominated Music Org Gets ‘Bach’ to Basics with Concert and Book Release

Matthew Dirst (photo by Jacob Power)

FOR FANS OF early music — an often scholarly lot who aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves — bad-boy Baroque-era painter Caravaggio certainly nailed something in his dramatic 1595 painting, “The Musicians.” (Simon Schama talks about this in his TV series The Power of Art.) One look at his masterpiece, and you feel as if you’ve stumbled upon and surprised a roomful of dewy-eyed musicians, their youthful faces swollen with melancholy, with the lutist looking like he’s about ready to burst into tears before he’s even tuned his instrument. So no, you certainly don’t need a Ph.D. to enjoy and be moved by the music of Handel, G.P. Telemann, or J.S. Bach, but a little bit of scholarship never hurt anyone. Knowing the history of this music may even deepen your appreciation of it.

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