The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) held its biggest fundraiser of the year, The Grand Gala Ball, Friday evening, October 07, 2016 at the Caroline Wiess Law Building. The event drew more than 450 guests who entered beneath a tent accented with rose gold garlands and sparkling chandeliers for a night of dinner and dancing. The evening’s theme, "Come Dance with Me," celebrated the exhibition Degas: A New Vision and the artist’s iconic ballerinas. Laurie and Reed Morian, the events chairs, helped raise over $1.85 million toward the MFAH's operating budget. 

Celebrating Degas and his dancers, ballerinas became live art pieces and shadow box dancers struck poses of perfection. The venue was masterfully decorated by Todd Events with tables set with centerpieces of antique-pink garden roses, crystal candelabras, luxurious linens, and pave floral columns. City Kitchen wowed guests with a menu that included lobster salad, pan-roasted chicken with cognac and crème fraiche, and pumpkin with sage and hazelnuts. For dessert, guests indulged in ile flottante with crème anglaise. Lee and Cristina Hudson and Ralph and Lisa Eads generously donated white and red wine from their vineyards in Napa Valley and Bordeaux for everyone’s enjoyment. After dinner, guests danced the night away to the sounds of The Jordan Kahn Orchestra. It was an event not to be missed. 

Thanks to all the generous donors who help make the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston one of the best museums in the country. 
 

Guests:

Nancy and Rich Kinder; Sara and Bill Morgan; Phoebe and Bobby Tudor; Barbara and Gerald Hines; Janice and Bob McNair; Diane Lokey Farb; Cherie and Jim Flores; Lynne and Joe Hudson; Lee and Cristina Hudson; Cornelia and Meredith Long; Martha Long; Courtney Sarofim; Carol and Michael Linn; Cynthia and Tony Petrello; Ann and John Bookout; Pat Breen; Rose Cullen; Anne and Charles Duncan; Prince Piotr and Princess Maria-Anna Galitzine; Margaret Alkek Williams; Jeanie Kilroy Wilson and Wallace Wilson; Lela and Robin Gibbs; Sandy and Lee Godfrey; Ginni and Richard Mithoff; Laurie and Reed Morian; Lynn Wyatt; Karol Barnhart; Shahla and Hushang Ansary; Eliza and Stuart Stedman; Sara Paschall Dodd; Nancy and Butch Abendshein; Vivian Wise.

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About MFA

Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the ten largest art museums in the United States. Located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the MFAH comprises two gallery buildings, a sculpture garden, theater, two art schools, and two libraries, with two house museums, for American and European decorative arts, nearby. The encyclopedic collection of the MFAH numbers more than 65,000 works and spans the art of antiquity to the present.