Golden Eggs, a Fantastic Married Duo and a Young Power Couple Add Up to the Best CAMH Bash Ever

If you know stylist extraordinaire Ceron and dynamo events planner Todd Fiscus, you know that anything this married duo puts its hands on is going to be superb. Add the sophistication of ascending young couple Kathryn and Colby Swain and you have one engaging foursome. So it was that, with this group at the helm, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston celebrated another winning, art-filled bash.

This is one evening that party decor regularly takes a backseat to the art that is up for auction. Who needs elaborate decorations when 43 works in the silent auction line the museum walls while the eight live auction items hold premier positions? Helping raise a total of $481,000 for the night were works by Owen Drysdale, Susie Rosmarin, Mark Flood, Debra Barrera, Oliver Herring, Scooter LaForge, and Floyd Newsom. 

Christie’s auctioneer Steve Zick jetted in from Chicago to man the gavel during the spirited live auction portion of the evening.

But Fiscus is, after all, a popular master of space makeovers. So he and Ceron put their heads together.

“Ceron loves these sculptures we have that look like eggs and he wanted to use them,” Fiscus says. But there wasn’t really an appropriate theme. “So we kind of started there. ‘What came first the chicken or the egg?’ And then we were like ‘What came first the patron or the artist?'” Voila!

The result was what Fiscus describes as “super modern, really minimalist, like a blank canvas and then we just layered in Ceron’s favorite color — gold.” Gold-leafed egg shells wafted in the AC breezes overhead as gilded palm leaves peppered the party spaces. White orchids abounded.

What’s a party without food and drink? Jackson and Company provided the delish dinner while Casa Dragones tequila, with an orchid-laced tequila bar, fueled the dance enthusiasm that kept DJ Souljah hopping. Casa Dragones added further to the evening by contributing a San Miguel de Allende trip and tequila tasting package as the lead auction item.

In the mix, CAMH director Bill Arning, curators Dean Daderko and Valerie Cassell Oliver, CAMH board chair Jereann Chaney, Sissy and Denny Kempner, Marita and J.B. Fairbanks, Ann and Karl Stern, Phoebe and Bobby Tudor, McKay Otto, Holly and Austin Alvis, Elizabeth and Barry Young, Diane Lokey Farb, Mark Sullivan, Leigh and Reggie Smith, Betty and Stephen Newton, and Ann and Karl Stern.

For the record: Fiscus did the Swains’ wedding in San Miguel de Allende last year and they all became fast friends. Thus, the unexpected pairing of gala chairs.