Honoree Lauren Anderson, Duyen Nguyen at the Houston Arts Alliance Add on Art Gala (Photo by Johnny Than)
This is the second story in a series detailing outrageous, inventive and important art parties. It’s time to anoint the most sizzling soirées of the season.
Houston Arts Alliance’s first-ever Add on Art Gala brought 21 Houston-based talents and 400 guests together for an evening of creativity, camaraderie, collecting and performance. The setting was the expansive art-centered complex of Silver Street Studios.
Two years in the making, this fabulous salute to Houston artists broke all previous HAA fundraising records, generating $583,000 to benefit Houston Arts Alliance and its featured creatives.
The artists, each of whom was a guest of honor at an underwriter’s table, created a special work of art for this collaborative showcase. At the gala, the patrons at each artist’s table were invited to “add on” to the painting or sculpture, through various mediums. Acclaimed street artist Daniel Anguilu invited his sponsors to field markers and paints upon his canvas, while Patrick Medrano’s collaborators manipulated mechanical attributes upon a five-armed marionette.
These resulting add-on artworks were offered for silent-auction acquisition to the assembled throng of collectors.
The evening was emceed by ABC 13’s morning anchor Rita Garcia, and featured dynamic entertainers Niko Mark, DJ Athenz, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton and Shaun Smith. Houston Arts Alliance was thrilled to honor leaders in the arts: Kate and Steve Gibson, who have actively supported our arts and parks for more than 30 years (including revitalizing Houston’s Art Corridor, especially transforming the Silver Eagle Warehouse into Silver Street Studios and Steve Gibson’s other imprint with partners on Sawyer Yards), and Lauren Anderson, former prima ballerina of the Houston Ballet and one of America’s most celebrated African-American classical dance stars.
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“Arts represent the soul of our city,” says Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who made a special appearance to deliver remarks and congratulate the assembled luminaries: Houston Arts Alliance CEO John Abodeely, the honorees, and the evening’s innovative chairs Tatiana and Craig Massey, the HAA board chair.
“We may be the energy capital of the world, and have the largest medical center in the world, but at the same time, we can be the art city in the United States of America,” Turner concludes.
PC Seen: Collectors who scored works that evening including Duyen and Marc Nguyen, Penelope and Lester Marks, Heidi and Marcus Smith, Mary and John Eads, Zhenya Van Riet, Jakeen Johnson, and ELLIO Fine Art’s Trish Matute; HAA board vice chair Michele Leal Farah; Melanie Lawson and John Guess Jr.; Janet and Paul Hobby; elected officials Houston Council Member Sallie Alcorn and husband George Alcorn, Council Member Karla Cisneros, and Court of Appeals Justice Meg Poissant.
More art-world luminaries: In from Florida, the chair’s brother Steve Massey; and Add on Art Gala artists Daniel Anguilu, Gayatri Bhola, Blakely Hamblen, Liz Flores Callahan, Michael Ray Charles, Maggi Cummings, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Sarah Fisher, Mark Francis, LaMonte French, Wayne Gilbert, GONZO247, Sharon Kopriva, Jesse Lott, Patrick Medrano, Angelbert Metoyer, McKay Otto, Susan Plum, Preetika Rajgariah, Allan Rodewald, and Chaney Trotter.
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