It's not often that disco balls, wrecking balls and backhoes are united as party props. But then it's not often that partygoers romp through a building that is soon to be leveled. The diverse elements came together Friday night for the Glassell School of Art "Wrecking Ball."
The annual benefit and art auction was perhaps the last to be held in the space that is set to go under the real wrecking ball next spring as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston makes way for its new contemporary wing and new art school on an expanded campus.
More than 300 guests, a good number in hard hats and some in construction coveralls, prowled the hallways of the school bidding on donated artworks from professional artists including Joseph Havel, Janet Hassinger, Lester Marks and Mary Hawkins. In addition, talented Glassell School students contributed 78 works for the silent auction.
Overseeing the casual evening were chairs Sara Paschall Dodd and Gregory Fourticq Jr. The duo took over one immensely long table for their gathering of friends that included Anthony Grant of Sotheby's New York, Eliza Osborne of the Centre Pompidou Foundation, Eliza and Stewart Stedman, Andrew Echols, John and Becca Cason Thrash and Susan and Bob Boykin.
The disco balls were part of the table decor where Tonka truck centerpieces were accented with the pint-sized glittering globes. The disco touch would come in handy as guests took to the outdoor dance floor to wiggle to the tunes spun by DJ Lucy of Dallas. Providing plenty of sustenance for the auction bidding and dancing was A Fare Extraordinaire, which provided buffet tables laden with tasty offerings.
The party crowd included major underwriters Leslie and Brad Bucher, artists John Alexander and Claire Ankenman, gallerist John McClain, high bidders Cherie and Jim Flores, MFAH director Gary Tinterow, Kathy and John Orton, Jane Howze and John Mann, Karol Barnhart, Laura Bellows and Jack Pendergrast, Patsy and Greg Fourticq, Leigh and Reggie Smith and Bobby and Phoebe Tudor, who carried her own wrecking ball on her wrist.
Christopher Gardner, from left, Sara Dodd, Gary Tinterow and Gregory Fourticq Jr.
