Bowers Looks to the Future in Marking Its 60-Year Past

Ceilings hung with paper lanterns and grounds strewn with fresh rose petals, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art celebrated its 60th birthday Saturday, drawing more than 700 people to its La Fiesta gala, “Under a Chinese Sky.”

Guests--many in traditional Chinese dress--sipped wine in the courtyard of the Santa Ana museum before they previewed the exhibit, “Seeking Immortality: Chinese Tomb Sculpture from the Schloss Collection.” Afterward, they dined alfresco in the museum’s back lot, feasting on crispy duck, sea bass and a birthday cake shaped like a pagoda.

Even as he looked back on six decades, museum President Peter Keller looked toward the museum’s place in the new millennium: “The last 60 years have been a good foundation,” he said during the reception, “and with our state-of-the-art facilities, we’re as good as it gets when it comes to a museum of the 21st century.

“In the year 2000, this event will feature an exhibit of the Imperial Court Costumes of the Forbidden City. This is where the Bowers is going . . . very international. And we’re expanding our facilities--we’ll have a few new buildings by then.”

Guests included Lillian Schloss of New York, who, with her late husband, Ezekiel, collected the clay funerary sculptures (known as mingqi) on display at the museum through March 16.

“I’m very excited, very proud,” Schloss said as she viewed the exhibit with Janet Baker, curator of the more than 200 clay pieces that date from the 3rd century BC to the 8th century. “I had to see how they displayed the pieces. We’ve had other exhibits, in New York.”

Mingqi (pronounced ming-chee) was developed in the 3rd century when it was decided that prominent rulers should no longer be buried with their living concubines and servants, explained Baker, the museum’s curator of Asian art. “In very ancient China, they were interred live with their masters,” she said. “When it was outlawed as inhumane, the new custom of making clay replicas began.”

Small replicas that included women, animals and houses were placed in the tomb to accompany the deceased into the afterlife.

“The exhibit brings us face to face with actual people who lived in ancient China nearly 2,000 years ago,” said Baker, who wore a silk robe embroidered with colorful butterflies. “It reminds us of how little we change across time and centuries. What they enjoyed and strived for is not all that different from what we in the 20th century also think about.”

Co-chairing the gala--which was expected to make about $250,000--were Electa Anderson and Anne Shih, who heads the museum’s Chinese Cultural Arts Council.

“Tonight, we are sharing cultures,” said Anderson who topped her black velvet gown with a gold-embroidered fuchsia shawl. “That is what the Bowers’ experience is all about.”

Said Shih: “We are celebrating an anniversary in the way the Chinese celebrate their moon festival. The moon festival is like an American Thanksgiving. They give thanks and the farmers hope for a good harvest.”

It was Shih who organized one of the evening’s highlights--a silent auction that featured paper lanterns hand-painted by Chinese artists.

Guests bid on lanterns painted with lotus blossoms, brightly colored ribbons, fish and ancient Chinese money.

On a display table, Shih had created a meandering river made of white rice. Its edges were trimmed with hundreds of shiny pebbles.

“The river symbolizes ‘forever,’ ” said Shih, whose traditional orange gown was splashed with gold. “Here’s to the Bowers museum--forever!”

Guests also included: Stephen Chandler, museum board chairman with his wife, Susan; Henry and Renee Segerstrom; Gavin and Ninetta Herbert; Fernando and Olga Niebla; Norman Anderson; Frank Arensberg; John Binaski; Harry and Birdie Bubb; Sharon Lesk; Curley Nobles; Arlene and George Cheng; Mary and Peter Muth; Jo Ellen Qualls; and Gayle and Edward Roski Jr.

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Blowing smoke: Smoking stogies as they talked about their hectic schedules, TV personality Robin Leach and actor George Hamilton joined more than 100 guests at a benefit for the New York-based James Beard Foundation last week at John Dominis restaurant in Newport Beach.

Hamilton had just returned from the Dominican Republic, where he helped oversee the blending of the cigars he sells. On the way back, he had stopped in Dallas, where he “picked out a horse” for his new movie, “Rough Riders.” “I play William Randolph Hearst,” he said.

His TV talk-show--in which he starred wife his ex-wife, Alana--has been canceled. “But I got my alimony back,” he piped. “They paid us a lot of money.”

Leach was on a 12-day tour “around the country” shooting a TV show. Where had he come from? “I don’t know,” he said, laughing. “I’m on my way to Honolulu to shoot a segment of my ‘Heroes of America’ show with Scott Grady. It’s a show about ordinary people who have done extraordinary things.”

Leach took time out for the “Dining in the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Dinner,” because “food and fellowship are the things that make the world tick,” he said.

Gourmet fare included lobster tartare with Beluga caviar, grilled John Dory with artichoke mousse and veal tenderloin.

Dessert? Mascarpone cream on a pistachio macaroon. And Hamilton’s cigars served up on a silver platter, of course.