Perot’s Night at the Museum Turns Dallas Power Players Into Kids Again

Night at the Museum has become an excuse to channel your inner child for many on the Dallas charity social circuit. Titled Ignite this year, event chairs Marlene and John Sughrue and the honorary chair Mary McDermott Cook kept things magical at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

More than 1,000 guests came to imbibe cocktails and perhaps learn something new (who doesn’t like to act smart the next time they are on the courts at DCC or catching-up with friends over a glass of pinot noir at Park House?).

First up, I decided (cocktail in hand) to pop into the museum’s world-exclusive exhibition, Origins: Fossils from the Cradle of Humankind, which showcases fossils of two ancient human relatives – Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi. I now can’t wait to casually drop in a conversation, “Have you seen Origins at the Perot? Well, I found it fascinating as it’s the first time that human relative fossils of two different species have ever been displayed together outside of Africa.” Smartypants (usually Dsquared2 jeans actually) me will then sit back and wait for everyone to look impressed.

The event raises money for the Perot Museum’s educational initiatives, student scholarships, museum operations, traveling exhibitions and groundbreaking research. The Perot’s programs serve hundreds of thousands of children, students, teachers, families and life-long learners every year. Their mission is to inspire minds (perhaps the next generation of mathematicians, scientists and engineers) through science and nature at their 180,000-square-foot Victory Park facility which opened in December 2012.

The institution has roots dating back to 1936 as the Dallas Museum of Natural History (established 1936). That organization merged with The Science Place (established 1946) and the Dallas Children’s Museum (established 1995) in 2006 and became the Museum of Nature and Science.

Through a generous gift in 2008 from the five adult children of Margot and Ross Perot, the museum was able to break ground in 2009 for a building designed 2005 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis Architects. The museum was then named in honor of the Perot family. With the passing of Ross Perot this past July, this year’s event became especially poignant.

Back to channeling your inner child, this is not your standard sit-down dinner fundraiser. Instead, you weave your wave through the various floors of the museum encountering food stations which might be Asian-inspired small plates served on a conveyor belt or a Rube Goldberg dessert station. One of the highlights of my evening was catching up with one of my favorite couples, Megan and Austin Curry while I sipped on a dry-ice test tube cocktail.

Whenever I see the two at some black-tie event they never fail to disappoint as neither plays its safe with their outfits. Austin might be in a custom-made tuxedo in a bold print or vibrant color from Hadleigh’s while Megan is on his arm in some Alexander McQueen delicious and perhaps slightly deviant frock straight from the runway. Since they were also channeling their inner child, they were in jeans that evening, but Megan still had on a pair of fierce Miu Miu heels. I guess you can take the girl off the runway, but not the runway out of the girl.

To round out the night, an after-party featuring the Georgia Bridgwater Orchestra seemed to resemble a rave from my 1990s life as glow sticks were being passed out. I saw many Blahniks coming off for some dancing, but old me only stayed a few minutes and grabbed a Wagyu burger for my Uber ride home. I often get a little peckish as it creeps up to midnight.

Some other guests enjoying the mind-bending activities included Margot Perot, Carolyn Rathjen, Nicole Small, Nancy Cain-Marcus, Perot Museum board chair-elect Karen Katz, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Dallas City Councilmember David Blewett, Peter Balyta, Terri West, and Sally Hoglund.