Far Out! '80s Bash and Art Auction Raises $500K for the Glassell School

Jenny Antill
Far Out! '80s Bash and Art Auction Raises $500K for the Glassell School

Heidi Gerger, Cynthia Bigelow, Jereann Chaney and Mary Arocha

A RAD PARTY at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston raised half a mil for its Glassell School. The highlight of the MTV-themed bash was an auction of works by Glassell alumni, which were on display among the tie-dye décor in the mod new building.


More than 200 guests dressed up in neon and ’80s-rrific attire to view and bid on the art before a buffet dinner by Swift & Company, featuring inventive Mexican fare like chicken-and-walnut enchiladas and lentil tacos, plus a guacamole bar — all washed down with coffee-and-Kahlua milkshakes for dessert.

A DJ spun tunes befitting of a MTV-themed party and revelers — including gallery bigwigs like Kerry Inman, MFAH patrons Lily and Harrison Cullen, and event chairs Leigh and Reggie Smith — boogied down in the name of charity. The evening’s till topped $500,000.

Bobbie Nau and Gary Tinterow

Lisa Fred, Jenna Lindley and Frances Lummis

Reggie Smith, Brad Bucher and John Guess

Micheline Newall, Sam Gorman, Laurie Minniece and Silvia Salle

Liz and Tom Glanville

Alfred C. Glassell, III and Marli Andrade

Cullen Geiselman, Mary and Tom Lile, and Robert Muse

Apama Strickland and Brad Blume

Carrie Brandsberg-Dahl, Judy Nyquist and Sverre Brandsberg-Dahl

Megan Olivia Ebel

Art + Entertainment

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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On Saturday, Jan. 6, artist-owned Archway gallery greets the new year with Inward Journey, an exhibition of unapologetically beautiful abstract paintings by Houston painter Mohammad Ali Bhatti.

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