“Tablescapes 2000” From sedate to far, far out
Houston Lifestyles and Homes – May 2000
Alex Ashcraft
Spring
From KGA by Kelly Gale Amen and friends
Table boosts Houston art and artisans in general and celebrates Amen’s collaborators in his various design enterprises. Lush greenery was created by Gregory/Henry Landscapes. Pillow, painted by artist John Palmer, is from Debbie Schnitzer’s shop, Poof, which sells Amen’s pillow designs. An Amen mosaic table was made by Helen Haley at her Haute Pots.
For a night and a day Houston Country Club glittered in wild profusion at the Pi Beta Phi Foundation benefit for it’s charities. “Tablescapes 2000” in March brought together a record 65 designers, both professional and amateur, to decorate tables in themes limited only by imagination.
The biennial event drew an estimated 1,400 to enjoy a visual feast, gustatory feasts and improve their design knowledge in the process.
Designs went from A to Z and beyond into languages that haven’t been invented yet. Tables were elegant and sedate, adorned with fine antique silver, china and crystal. And they were madly imaginative, from a trellis centerpiece of orchids soaring up to the 18-foot ceiling to another, outrageously overflowing with scruffy, stuffed real animals.
They bloomed with flowers, trees and statues, or they had no flowers at all. They went from Zen minimalism to glittering excess. Table props ranged from moose antlers and a real cello to computer keyboards, while themes included everything from an Egyptian cemetery to divorce. Spring-flavored titles, however, were among the leading entries. Tablescapes 2000 was more fun than it has ever been before, according to an informal survey.
An evening cocktail reception and buffet, complete with achamber music, opened the event to honor its underwriters. The club’s graceful ballroom and its two long, adjacent reception rooms were packed with the tables and hundreds of well-wishers. The night is fast becoming an important social event as more and more prominent women – men, too, incidentally- continue to increase the head count and the revenue, which exceeded $130,000.
The following morning began with a breakfast, a tour of the tables and a seminar featuring television personality Mary Emmerlig, best know for her appearance on HGTV. The nationally prominent interior designer is also an author and magazine editor. A luncheon followed with a seminar schedule.
The event honored Virgina Holt Mcfarland, an alumna of Pi Beta Phi and winner of its 1999 SAVVY award for outstanding community service.
Established in 1983, the Pi Beta Phi Library for Patients and families at Texas Children’s Hospital provides a cheerful and welcoming space for children and their loved ones, according to the foundation. An expanding collection of more than 4,000 books in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Vietnamese are available to the young patients. Videos, as well as book-on-tape, are also available for education, recreation and music.
Sorority alumnae created its Children’s Enrichment Program at M.D. Anderson in 1996. In addition to offering intensive academic studies to young patients, the program includes assistance to those with learning problems acquired as a result of cancer and it’s treatment.
Education and remedial instructions is offered be a coach using computer software programs and other specialized materials that meet a child’s individual needs. Children are also taught to use the internet as an educational tool.
Benefit co-chairs were Margaret Wallace Rotan and Elizabeth Hoover Rotan, who are sisters-in-law.
