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  1. Catering & Design
  2. Event Design & Decor

Museum Hosts Gala of Biblical Proportions

The annual fund-raising event combined heaven and hell themes in an evening of dining and dancing.

February 15, 2006
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art draws more than 1,300 museum members, supporters, and socialites each year to the historic venue for a night of live entertainment and dancing. The signature black-tie fund-raiser, known as the Un-Gala, has earned its reputation for being an unconventional, eccentric benefit befitting a museum named for a circus impresario.

To celebrate the event's 20th anniversary, committee cochairwomen Amie Shay and Emily Walsh decided on a Dark Before Dawn theme that was kept under wraps until guests arrived. "Keeping the theme a secret creates a lot of mystery," Shay says. "And it's challenging to come up with a theme to top the one before it." As a hint, guests received either an all white or an all red invitation.

Greeted by fire-eaters and loud drumming, attendees mingled at two champagne bars, manned by red-winged bartenders, before entering the museum's hell-inspired foyer, which was draped in black. They walked toward a light at the end of the room and entered a courtyard conceptBAIT Inc. designed to look like heaven, with flowing icicle-shaped white chiffon suspended from one end of the U-shaped space to the other. "Over 9,000 large sequins were woven onto the chiffon pieces, which created a mirror ball effect," said Cheryl Cook, one of conceptBAIT's designers. Eighteen moving light fixtures set up on the roof by Bay Stage Lighting Systems bathed the expansive area in white light.

The environment was further enhanced with tables dressed in stark white linens topped with centerpieces made from four-foot-tall baby oak trees planted in silver vases. The event committee enlisted the help of volunteer Eric Cross, the visual coordinator of the local Saks Fifth Avenue, to adorn the trees (donated by Turner Tree & Landscape) with ice-blue crystals and glass votives containing battery-operated faux candles.

Mattison's catered the affair, beginning the cocktail hour with a raw bar, Mediterranean appetizers, antipasti, and gourmet cheeses and fruit. For dinner, buffet stations offered salad; beef tenderloin; flounder stuffed with spinach, brie, and crabmeat; herb-crusted chicken breast; and bow-tie pasta. Throughout the meal, Bay Stage programmed the lighting to change colors every 20 minutes. The Ketel One Ice Bar, towering more than 10 feet above the crowd and made entirely of ice, was a go-to spot all evening.

At 9 PM, the dance floor came to life with members of the Sarasota Ballet performing a devil-versus-angel show choreographed by Walsh, a former dancer with the company.

After the dancing, guests cooled their heels at dessert stations providing a dark chocolate fountain with cookies, pretzels, marshmallows, and fruit for dipping, plus build-your-own ice cream cones. At night's end, guests left heaven and hell with a custom-made candle by Scentsational Soap & Candle Products.

—Vanessa Goyanes

Photos: Courtesy of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
The courtyard of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was transformed with a heaven theme for the museum's annual fund-raiser, the Un-gala.
The courtyard of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art was transformed with a heaven theme for the museum's annual fund-raiser, the Un-gala.
Every 20 minutes throughout dinner, Bay Stage Lighting Systems changed the colors in the courtyard.
Every 20 minutes throughout dinner, Bay Stage Lighting Systems changed the colors in the courtyard.
Dancers from the Sarasota Ballet entertained guests with a good-versus-evil performance.
Dancers from the Sarasota Ballet entertained guests with a good-versus-evil performance.
During cocktails guests mingled among fire-eaters and drummers.
During cocktails guests mingled among fire-eaters and drummers.
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