Rachael Abrams | Photos by Kristina Bowman
- Posted:
- July 01, 2012
- Event Date:
- May 04, 2012
How do you amplify an already breathtaking landscape? Just add artist Dale Chihuly’s dramatic blown-glass sculptures. The Dallas Arboretum recently did just that with an opening-night fête, “Chihuly Dallas: The Gala in The Garden,” which honored the artist and his wife, Leslie, on the occasion of the exhibition ”Chihuly at the Dallas Arboretum” (on view through November 5). More than 900 guests heeded chair Kaki Hopkins’ call and dressed en blanc, so the colors that popped were the brilliant hues of Chihuly’s masterpieces — his red reeds, yellow icicle tower and multicolored Nijima floats. Glass gazers, including honorary chairmen Caroline Rose Hunt and Margaret Crow, settled into one of the Arboretum’s three gardens for an ethereal dinner. Lightning illuminated the sky, but the rain held off until after the luxe courses prepared by Gil’s Elegant Catering, Kevin Garvin and Ken Rathbun, whereupon guests convened inside the Arboretum’s Camp House. The cool night wasn’t over yet: Music by the Dallas Wind Symphony and fireworks worthy of the artworks below capped the evening. In the glass menagerie: honorary dinner hosts Cheryl and Steve Coke, Holly and Tom Mayer, Debbie and Brian Shivers, Nancy Rutchik, Joyce and Harvey Mitchell, and Mary Anne and Richard Cree; honorary dinner chairs Vera and Bob Thornton; and guests Bonner and Cliff Thomson, Elizabeth and Richard Grant, Richard and Kathy Hold, Dee Wyly, Shelton Hopkins, Mike Rawlings, and Marianne and Roger Staubach.