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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > February > 04 > Entry
Blanton gala nets $2.325 million in donations, tickets sales
Saturday night’s gala at the Blanton Museum of Art welcomed more than 450 guests who fashionably partied in honor of museum namesake and donor Jack S. Blanton.
Beyond the impressive $600,000 in ticket sales, the gala and celebration of Blanton was also cause for announcing some $1,025,000 in gifts to the museum’s $40 million endowment.
The children of Jack Blanton — Eddy and Kelli Blanton, Jack Jr. and Leslie Blanton, Elizabeth Blanton Wareing and Peter Wareing — donated $1 million in their father’s honor, with the monies going to the Blanton’s endowment campaign. The LBJ Family Foundation donated $25,000.
The Blanton also raised $275,000 in in-kind support from corporate sponsors for the event.
Making the biggest visual splash of the evening were the two arts works unveiled. Donated by contemporary collectors and Blanton supporters Jeanne and Michael Klein, a massive site-specific installation by Macarthur “genius grant” award-winner Teresita Fernandez and an untitled wall sculpture by Ghanan artist El Anatsui. The two piece together are valued at $700,000.
El Anatsui, Untitled, 2007, Copper, aluminum, 144 x 195 inches, Promised gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein.
Always visionary in their taste in art, the Kleins took the forward step of commissioning Fernandez to create something that could aesthetically defuse the Blanton’s massive white atrium. Fernandez succeeded brilliantly. “Stacked Water” makes an invigorating yet sublime statement as visitors enter the museum. It encourages thoughtful looking — exactly the mindset needed for a satisfying museum experience.
Teresita Fernandez, “Stacked Waters.” 2009. Gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein.
Teresita Fernandez, “Stacked Waters.” 2009. Gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein.
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