Floral Art Is Rite Stuff for Museum

One searched in vain for pusillanimous pansies at the gala preview of the seventh annual Art Alive, a floriferous pageant of spring at the San Diego Museum of Art on April 26.

The 400 souls who turned out for the yearly tribute to Ma Nature’s choicest handiwork wanted flash and dazzle, and they got it in spades, in gallery after gallery filled with clever floral arrangements that evoked the sense and style of the new and old masterworks on the museum walls. More than 40 local designers and 10 garden clubs contributed blooming works of art.

Always one of the season’s snazzier parties--it gives the ladies a chance to adorn themselves demurely with floral print gowns, and abundantly with fresh, silk and jeweled blossoms--Art Alive continued this year to be something of a fraud, in that the flowers just sat there, complacently waiting to be examined but contributing nothing to the conversations that swirled around them. The year that a giant Venus flytrap corners several committee members in the Walbridge Gallery--well, that will be the year that this event really deserves to be called Art Alive.

But the conjunction of sweetly scented flowers and dry champagne seemed enough for most guests, who cheerfully babbled on about the facetious Hanging Gardens of Babylon (not since Nineveh!) planted in the rotunda by caterer-cum-designer John Baylin. Baylin also arranged the buffets of pates and pastries that preceded and followed a lecture given by San Juan Capistrano antiquarian G. P. (Gep) Durenburger.

The lecture, a formal pause in an otherwise free-flowing evening, was the brainchild of Art Alive chairman Katy Dessent, who pruned the event into a more serious consideration of the floral tributes inspired by fine works of art. Decked out in a floral print and silk gardenia earrings, Dessent greeted her guests in the perfumed flower market that flanked the museum entrance.

“Art Alive is a marvelous celebration of spring,” she said. “It’s part of San Diego’s Rite of Spring.”

Oddly enough, the most stunning centerpiece of Dessent’s floral extravaganza was a piece made with dried grains and grasses by Jule des Pres, a young Parisian designer whose work is virtually unknown in this country but is celebrated abroad. Dessent saw Des Pres’ work in shop windows while visiting Paris last year and sought her out to participate in Art Alive; in the interval, she has been approached by the government of Senegal to design what well might be the most ambitious gardens ever planted. According to Dessent’s husband, Michael, dean at California Western School of Law, a 36-mile stretch of road leading into Dakar, the capital of Senegal, will be planted in 30-acre plots, each a single color of a single flower. The result supposedly will be visible from the moon, should anyone hike up there to get such a thorough overview.

Des Pres said that working in San Diego presented unforeseen challenges. “You have all fresh flowers here and no dried ones,” she said, explaining what would indeed have been a difficulty for a specialist in dried flowers. “It’s not like in Paris!” Nonetheless, she managed to find sufficient materials with which to compose a haunting, striking evocation of nature caught unawares and au naturel . It was a favorite of the guests, most of whom devoted plenty of time to touring the galleries and the many thoughtful offerings.

Mary Allan, who served as 1987 Art Alive general chairman, this year took the duties of gala chairman. She seemed pleased by the enthusiastic turnout.

“We’ve done it again,” said Allan. “It’s a great year for flowers on people--roses are so bon chic , they’re in everyone’s hair.”

Museum Director Steven Brezzo, for whom the figurative situation of having flowers in his hair has become an annual experience, took a rather professional view of the proceedings. “Flowers and art are as classic a union as the Renaissance and the Dutch and Flemish masters,” he said. “Flowers have always been a catalyst and a starting point.”

The committee included Suzanne Arth, Joanne Birnberg, Judi Freeman, Eileen Hope, Peter Hall, Dori Skomer, Susan McKnight, Linda Strauss, Jean Paige, Harlene Scanlon, Barbara Sherrill, Jill Sondker, Diana Young and Barbara ZoBell.

Among guests were Sally and John Thornton, Carol and Ned Baumer, Judith Harris with Robert Singer, Carolyn and Arthur Hooper, Hank Corwin, Veloris Butterfield, Karon Luce, Ewa and Larry Robinson, Mary and Stephen Stiles, Anne and John Gilchrist, Joanne Hutchison, Helene and Ed Muzzy, Frank Kockritz, Danah Fayman and museum President Joseph Hibben and his wife, Ingrid.

While the San Diego Museum of Art was content to say it with flowers, the organizers of Saturday’s fifth annual Gold & White Ball chose instead to convey their message with balloons.

Thousands of the floating orbs, some anchored to the dinner tables by bottles of champagne and floating like bubbles, reinforced the “Celebrate” theme of the major yearly fund-raiser to benefit the Crime Victims Fund. For the third year, the San Diego County Bar Assn. Auxiliary joined in hosting the event, which drew 300 to the Sheraton Harbor Island’s Champagne Ballroom.

San Diego’s Crime Victims Fund, which has gained national attention, enjoys significant support in the law enforcement community, and the guest list was unsurprisingly top-heavy with judges and attorneys. Many came especially to join in the applause offered to guests of honor Lois Kolender, a three-time Gold & White Ball chairman, and Police Chief Bill Kolender. (It was the third straight night of attending formal functions in the Champagne Ballroom for the Kolenders, and, on Saturday, Bill Kolender showed up a bit late, his presence having also been required at a Police Officers Assn. function.)

The evening opened and closed with games of chance in an adjoining casino, with dancing to Lil’ Elmo and the Cosmos offered as alternative entertainment (committee member Karen Nugent told the band to play “cop music” when Kolender approached the stage to accept his award). In between, there were a few brief speeches, a four-course dinner that included lobster bisque and filet de boeuf perigordine , and an auction of such items as a cruise aboard the America’s Cup-winning Stars & Stripes.

All these activities added significantly to the coffers of the Crime Victims Fund, an organization that, as its name implies, assists the victims of crime. Co-founder Beverly DiGregorio, who with Judge William L. Todd Jr. started the group in 1982, said, “Back then, every exotic disease had a fund-raising group, but not victims. Ours is still the only one of its kind in the country focused truly on the victims of crime. We don’t give huge awards to any individual, but we give enough to make a difference, and we give it quickly.” She offered as an example the case of an elderly woman who lost her bus pass in a purse-snatching. Since she required a pass to travel to her part-time job, the fund promptly gave her the necessary amount to buy a pass.

Event chairman Maggie Schuman said that the lively “Celebrate” theme was chosen in honor of the ball’s fifth anniversary. “Tonight’s party has more of an upbeat tone than in the past because we want people to have fun knowing they’re supporting the Crime Victims Fund,” she said. Co-chairman Pam Sullivan added that she would be satisfied simply knowing that the ball would provide sufficient proceeds to fund the project for another year; it was expected that this goal would be reached.

Among the guests were Polly and Judge Arthur Jones, Arna and Judge David Thompson, Charles and Judge Janet Kintner, Frank and Lynn Silva, Carol and Mike Alessio, Junko and Larry Cushman, Kay and John Byrne, and Crime Victims Fund President Michael Orfield and his wife, Adrienne. The committee included James Bonk, Kara Kobey, Marion Pasas, Jean Hellerich, Ellen Taub, Julie Maiorano, Melinda Green and Brenda Post.

The mail carrier used to regularly struggle under the weight of invitations from Alma Spicer, whose fund-raisers for human care organizations were frequent fixtures on the calender until last year, when she and husband Bill chose to spend most of their time at their Oregon bull-breeding ranch.

The morning post the other day did include a Spicer invite, though, and one that promised the sort of nonstop entertainment for which Alma’s parties always were famous. It will be given May 21 at the Spicer’s WESco (for William E. Spicer) Ranch on the Rogue River, as the 1988 field day for the Oregon Simmental (a breed of bull) Assn. The formal program will start rather dryly with lectures on such topics as “Could Rib Eye and Backfat Measurements Help in Merchandising Your Bulls?” but will continue in a more Alma-like vein with such amusements as a barn dedication, a game of “cow pie bingo,” and a steak dinner followed by a hoe-down. From the sound of things, Oregon will never be the same.