Rice’s Moody Center Shows Off Its Transformative Power With Climate Change and Environmental Justice Taking Centerstage

Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts opened its doors to 130 Houstonians for its annual fundraising dinner, A Dinner for the Moody, honoring artist Tiffany Chung. The event transformed the Center Gallery into a dinner ballroom, with everything centering around Moody’s current exhibition “Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice.”

This exhibition explores the connections between climate change and environmental justice, spanning from California to the Gulf Coast region of Texas.

The fundraising dinner kicked off with a cocktail hour, followed by a floral craft workshop. For dinner, City Kitchen Catering cooked up appetizers such as asparagus salad with fennel pollen mascarpone and artichoke-sweet pepper salpicon. Entrees featured oven-roasted snapper with creamy polenta and olive oil-porcini flatbread. For dessert, a trio of key lime pie tart, pistachio gelato and matcha crinkle cookie satisfied every sweet tooth.

Moody Center executive director Alison Weaver welcomed everyone to their seats and provided a brief overview of the museum’s mission and history. Rice University president Reggie DesRoches then introduced the exhibition and discussed the impact of the arts at Rice University.

“The creative imagination and inventive work found at the Moody both inspires and informs groundbreaking discoveries across the humanities and sciences,” DesRoches notes.

As president of Rice University, DesRoches is passionate about fostering innovation at a research university and believes the arts play a central role in creative problem solving and the generation of new ideas, which drives Rice’s future progress.

Dr. Anne Chao, a member and supporter of the Moody Center Advisory Council, introduced the honoree of the evening. Tiffany Chung’s work was featured in the Rice Public Art collection and displayed at the Wiess President’s House. She was also featured in the Moody’s 2022 exhibition Urban Impressions.

Chung is one of 13 artists featured in “Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice.” The exhibition examines the relationships between environmental justice, climate change and social justice through contemporary art. It highlights the destructive impacts of human-caused disasters such as deforestation, ocean acidification and pollution. 

Chung’s own installation, stored in a jar: monsoon, drowning fish, color of water, and the floating world 2010-2011, is a 1:50 scale model of a floating village designed in response to projected flooding from sea-level rise and climate change.

Event co-chairs philanthropist Suzanne Deal Booth and preservationists Phoebe and Bobby Tudor enriched the evening with their enduring knowledge of the arts.

“Their passions range from historic preservation to symphonies and ballets to the visual artists, and arts institutions around the world. These three make a difference for art, for artists and for nonprofits every day, setting a high bar for the rest of us,” Alison Weaver says.

The evening concluded on a high note, raising more than $300,000 for the Moody Center.

PC Seen: Bao-Long Chu, Ava Leavell and Cordel Haymon, Janet Gurwitch, Michelle White, Franci Neely, Shawn Stevens, Jim Jordan, Judy and Scott Nyquist, Janet Hobby, Elizabeth Kidd, Mel Chin, Trevor Paglen, Lacey Dorn, Paula and President Reggie DesRoches, Anne and Albert Chao, Kenneth Tam, and Elle Moody. 

“Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice” will be on display through Saturday, May 10.