Shelby's Social Diary
Blaffer Art Museum fans kiss the old goodbye, fawn over plans for refurbishedspace
The wrecking ball doesn't fall on the University of Houston's Blaffer Art Museum until July but supporters turned out in force Friday night for "Rock the Casbah: The Wrecking Ball," a Moroccan-themed farewell to the gallery that has stood pretty much as is on the campus since 1973.
Blaffer board member Karen Rozzell chaired the buffet dinner evening with her husband Scott Rozzell. While they mingled outside on the plaza welcoming more than 200 guests on that perfect spring night, the curious perused plans for the $2 million renovation that museum director Claudia Schmuckli said will be completed in mid-January.
Lead architect on the project Dan Wood of New York-based Work Architecture Co. was on hand for the evening that also served as an unveiling of plans for the Blaffer transformation. "The goal of the new design," Schmuckli said, "is to open the museum to the city while addressing the courtyard."
All in the architecture family, Jo and Jim Furr, managing principal of Gensler, the local architectural link on the project, were honorees.
In keeping with the theme, City Kitchen waiters in red fezes and white jackets passed Moroccan-influenced hors d'oeuvres across the plaza while two whirling belly dancers added their spirit to the party. Once the buffet dinner was complete, guests meandered back to the courtyard where Moodafaruka inspired dancing to popular tunes with a Middle Eastern bent.
Lapping up the atmosphere and adding to it were guests including Janet and Harvin Moore (dressed in Moroccan-style robes), Camilla Blaffer, Cristina Girard, Lisa and Russell Sherrill, Pamela and Russell Thorstenberg, Cabrina and Steve Owsley, Anita and Harry Brandstrader, Shirley and Don Rose, Diane Gendel and Doe and Henry Florsheim.