Bowers Goes All-Out for ‘African Icons’

Peter Keller is feeling a little smug about the opening on Saturday of the “African Icons of Power” exhibit at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

“It’s the first peek at the Tishman Collection since it was presented at the Metropolitan in New York in 1981,” says Keller, executive director of the Bowers Museum. “In fact, the only other place you will see similar pieces is at the Metropolitan and the British Museum in London.”

So of course the Bowers is going all-out with a black-tie bash co-chaired by Walt Disney Co. President Frank Wells and Disneyland President Jack Lindquist.

The Disney Co. owns the Tishman Collection, Keller explains. “An important part of our mission at the Bowers is African art,” he adds. “So we are thrilled to have it. It’s going to be one of the most significant exhibits we’ve had here.”

The collection will be at the Bowers for an indefinite period. “Disney’s interest is to use it for more than just a beautiful art collection,” Keller says. “They want to use it for educational purposes--to motivate and inform kids about the importance of African art.”

Tickets at $150 each are still available for the the party, a benefit for the Bowers’ educational programs and the Orange County Business Committee for the Arts. For information, call: (714) 567-3600.

*

Catholic Charities Mardi Gras: The royal robe felt a “little awkward,” he said, but Patrick Ortiz was thrilled to be honored with his wife, Jill, at the Mardi Gras Ball staged by Catholic Charities of Orange County on Friday at the Red Lion Hotel in Costa Mesa.

For their work on behalf of Orange County’s homeless, the Ortizes were named king and queen of the sixth annual ball. Past kings and queens have included Carl and Margaret Karcher, Peter and Mary Muth, Al and Deeann Baldwin and Gail and Gordon Lee.

The Ortizes, who live in Coto de Caza, decided to help the homeless because they wanted to give something back, Patrick Ortiz said. “We’ve been so fortunate, and we feel we have a responsibility to share that with others--help others improve their lives,” he says.

“Helping them has strengthened us. In one family we helped, the husband had become sick on the job, got behind on his house payments, got evicted, couldn’t find a job.” It’s not always the man who doesn’t want to work who can’t find a home. “It was just a stroke of terrible luck.”

Guests enjoyed a cocktail reception and a dinner of Caesar salad, filet mignon and broiled scampi before they watched the Ortizes receive their crowns from the Rev. Norman F. McFarland, Catholic bishop of Orange. “We’ve attended every one of these events,” Patrick Ortiz says. “We never dreamed we’d be up there.” Gala co-chairwomen were Doris Cantlay and Helen Hawkins.

*

Tidbits: New York fashion designer Carolina Herrera will be the headliner at the fashion show sponsored by Neiman Marcus and Angelitos de Oro on June 2 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Irvine. Mark your calendars. Angelitos--a support group of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Orange County--is known for fashion extravaganzas. Past guest designers have included Bob Mackie and Oscar de la Renta . . .

Specialty Catering of Irvine, with the help of chef Byron Gemmell of Chanteclair, not only whipped up the food prepared at Rick and Nancy Muth’s party last Thursday in their Orange home, they picked up the tab. Nice. “The retail cost of the catering would have been about $4,000,” says catering director J. Marc Mushkin. The event honored supporters of USC.