What a party! Glad you were there and if not, here is how it went down.
Background: We had just finished three days of exhibiting at the NAEA Conference in New Orleans at 3PM. We chose to exhibit at this show because the timing coincided with the opening at Bryant Galleries and we felt that if this Rockmore story had wings outside the Insiders and collectors, the art educators would be the ones to let us know.
The art educators love the Rockmore story. They have come to our booth, seen the works, attended our conferences, and many want to be Insiders and attend the opening at Bryant Galleries. We have packed up the Booth, stored it in storage and are arriving at BryantGallery at 4PM to set up the slide show and make sure all is set.
Glitch #1, #2 & #3 - We Panic when we discover there is champagne available but nothing else and we fear that the Rockmore crowd and teachers sometimes have a different concept of open bar. There also is no bartender and we have not even changed. Shirley Marvin has arrived and is practicing her speech which looks to be 10 pages too long. It will be hard to do a slideshow and her presentation and we still have the bar and bartender crisis to deal with as well as changing from our sweaty trade show clothes and it is 4:30PM.
Solution #1, #2 & #3 - Dodie Smith-Simmons has arrived early and agreed to hear Shirley's speech and give Rich a heads up on how long and appropriate it might be for this occasion. Rich flies out the door after setting up the projector & screen and runs down to the liquor store for supplies (granted being in the French Quarter makes this an easier task). Rich then parks the car (not easy) and as he is running in, he sees son-in-law Ken Litton saying, "Do you need help?" Rich says, "Yes, you are the bartender and Macy (our daughter) is the receptionist, Tee's mom Marie, will help you and take care of the three year old, Cady." Dodie then comes up and says emphatically, "You must let your mom do the entire speech." David Lambert president of Bryant Galleries arrives like the Calvary for the whole event and just like that, all crises are solved at 5PM.
The Event: After, we mix and mingle for an hour it's 6PM, Shirley says she is getting hungry and it's time to get this party started. Rich & Tee gather the folks together, explain the project and quickly introduce the people who are there. Rich starts from the front (xtra special attention for his mother in law-picture) and works his way to the back and there are a lot of guests (well over 100) by the time Shirley finishes her speech. Shirley's speech (Picture) is magnificent and even with the street noise and the fact that she cut it in half, people are fascinated. At least 6 different people come up afterwards and let us know that they would like to see the speech transcribed online in its entirety so here it is - Shirley's Speech on Rockmore (website).
After Shirley concludes Rich takes time to introduce one more special guest who has taken time out of running her own business on a busy Saturday night just to attend this event with her husband. She is easily identified as part of the heart and soul of the "French Quarter that Was". Larry Borenstein was the center of the Quarter universe and the Jaffe's are the ones that shared the Quarter with the world. JoAnn Clevenger(picture) is the one who has kept the spirit of the Quarter and all its intricate connections alive for all of this time through today. It is no surprise she had to have Rockmore's "Homage to the Quarter"(picture) in her Upperline Restaurant along with works of all the other artists who have defined New Orleans. JoAnn Clevenger(silly picture) embodies the spirit of Quarter and as Shirley added, "she serves the best food in town." We were proud to be able to recognize her at the end of our event.
And that is how it ended. It was 7:30PM at that point, we bagged the slideshow, people were thirsty and wanting to mingle, Ken was doing a bang up job as a bartender with his winning phrase, "Just tell me when." Tee took as many pictures as she could while playing hostess. Next time we will delegate a photographer as well as name taker of attendees (we broke our own #1 rule). If we missed you, please let us know you were there especially our teacher friends from the workshops (we only knew you by your faces).
By 8:45PM Shirley was really hungry and Rich used his school teacher training to clear out the Gallery. Daughter Mary joined us and after one final tour of the Rockmore's upstairs it was time to go to Mulates for dinner and Cajun dancing.
