Shelby's Social Diary
Celebrating art along the bayou, Buffalo Bayou Partnership enjoys a recordfundraising night
Photo by Jenny Antill
Photo by Jenny Antill
Dinner in a party tent on a bridge — standard procedure for the Buffalo BayouPartnership.Photo by Jenny Antill
Photo by Jenny Antill
Photo by Jenny Antill
Photo by Jenny Antill
Photo by Jenny Antill
Photo by Jenny Antill
Photo by Jenny Antill
The Sabine Street Bridge was tented and decorated for the Buffalo BayouPartnership gala.Photo by Jenny Antill
The arts organizations and artists that are creating a contemporary cultural tableau along the banks of the city's wandering waterway were saluted in style at the annual Buffalo Bayou Ball, hosted by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership.
It was a very popular evening. The record crowd (540) that gathered in the decorated party tent erected on the Sabine Street Bridge raised a record $420,000 for bayou improvement projects.
Favorite quote of the night: Mayor Annise Parker, "I love Buffalo Bayou. I love the bats. I love the racoons, the gars and the alligators. I love even more that Houstonians are embracing this beautiful asset."
Billed as "Confluence: An Artful Evening," the fundraiser saluted Aurora Picture Show, Buffalo Bayou ArtPark, FotoFest, the Houston Arts Alliance and the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts. All are participants in Confluence: Points of View on Buffalo Bayou, which is the contemporary art program of the partnership that brings innovative public art to the environs of the city's core waterway.
Also saluted were the artists who have contributed works including The Art Guys for their Mighty Tidy Skimmer Boat, Mel Chin for Seven Wonders in Sesquicentennial Park and John Runnels for Dream Boats on the Sabine Promenade.
Favorite quote of the night: Mayor Annise Parker, "I love Buffalo Bayou. I love the bats. I love the racoons, the gars and the alligators. I love even more that Houstonians are embracing this beautiful asset."
The casual evening was chaired by Cullen Geiselman and Judy Nyquist with support from host committee members that included Minnette and Peter Boesel, Susan and James Elmore, Jerry Jeanmard and Cliff Helmcamp, Leigh and Reggie Smith and Victoria and Marshal Lightman.
Receiving special thanks on this party night was landscape architect Johnny Steele, who with Charles Tate, Debby Francis and New Nurseries employed their creative talents in transforming the party tent into a sophisticated twinkly setting.
Party guests included former Mayor Bill White and Andrea White, Sissy Kempner, Nancy and Rich Kinder, Roxann and Tim Neumann, Pam and Patrick Cohan, Stephanie and Ernie Cockrell, Leisa Holland-Nelson and Robert Davenport, Alex Martinez and David Arpin, Gayle and Bob Eury, Susie and Sanford Criner, Carla Knobloch, Peter Brown and Kathy Hubbard.
