'Wild beasts' and singles mingle in artful setting

It's hard to be shy when you're outdoors in moonlight and mist, using a lantern to read clues and trying to identify sculpture.

That was the idea behind Deborah Ewusiak's clever interactive game Saturday night at the Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo, where Les Fauves, the museum's group of young professionals, were hosts for the Single Gourmet social club's full moon mixer.

Ewusiak, the museum's marketing and membership coordinator, organized teams by giving guests beads and paper tip sheets in colors that matched. As the groups found their targets in the outdoor sculpture garden, they took Polaroid photos as proof.

The museum galleries were open, and guests were able to view the works of bay area artists such as Theo Wujik, Rocky Bridges, Betsy Orbe Lester and Jack Breit.

Bob Sherman, the museum's chief of security, provided commentary as I took in Earl Bronsteen's "wall of shame," an installation featuring hundreds of gold-framed rejection letters.

Bronsteen, a still-aspiring artist from Boca Raton, uses pushpins on a map to tally the declinations: from 36 of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, four countries and two continents.

Steven Keene's Florida-themed paintings, bright acrylics on plywood ("just like the Highwaymen, but I live in Brooklyn") were offered at $2 each.

Keene's reference is to the African-American artists whose landscape paintings have been sold throughout Florida since the 1950s.

About 150 attended, including Susan Glickman, who leaves this week for a trip to Europe; Pat Courtney of Brandon; Laurie Oates; Dennis DeBon; Aimee Towey, the museum's exhibitions assistant; and Holly Wright, who was wearing a stunning beaded pendant that was her own work of art.

Dr. Robert Entel, whose mother, Syd, has a gallery in Safety Harbor, called the museum and the proximate botanical gardens "one of the main places of enjoyment in this county. There's a lot of energy in this place. I consider it a jewel in the Pinellas area."

Les Fauves, loosely translated from the French, means "wild beasts," a derisive term some critics used to describe fauvism, the first avant-garde art development in Europe between 1900 and World War I.

It was typified by the work of Matisse and characterized by vivid colors and free treatment of form.

Angels After Dark, the annual holiday gift mart that benefits children's ministries at First United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, has become so well attended that it moved from the church fellowship hall to the St. Petersburg Yacht Club ballroom this year.

Well over 1,000 shoppers attended the sale Friday evening and Saturday morning.

Nearly 50 vendors from the bay area and from as far away as Asheville, N.C., Atlanta and New York offered a variety of merchandise, from jewelry and decorative items to children's clothing.

During a walkthrough as people were setting up for the sale, I spoke with Anne Slocumb; Tricia Spinazzola and her mother, Barbara Ulrich; Candy Bassett; Leslie Daniels; Mary Deinigner; Janice Bennett and her mother, Joyce Sewell; Jim LeFebre; Katie Balogh; Sissy Joiner; Melanie Eubanks; Shannon Albert; Christine and Garrett Marecki; and Ashley Moran.

Whitney Cohen, co-chairwoman with Holly Piper, said Monday that last year's event was affected by the events of Sept. 11 and that this year's proceeds were considerably better.

The September timetable puts Angels After Dark ahead of numerous holiday fundraisers and positions it in a generally slow month for retailers, she said.

The St. Petersburg Times' first-floor auditorium was transformed into a dinner setting Friday evening for patrons attending Act One, a gala evening that benefits American Stage.

Susan Hough and Ken Locicero co-chaired the event, in which patrons ate dinner, walked to the theater for the opening of The Pavilion, then returned for champagne and a cabaret presentation.

Wendy Leigh is directing the production, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2000.

The festive crowd included Bill and Sally Habermeyer, Robb Hough, Judge David Seth and Joan LoBianco Walker, Marshall and Diana Craig, Lance Rodgers, Bill and Hazel Hough, Neil DeGroot and Joanne Johnson, Lionel and Lee Manwaring Lowry, Fred and Barbara McCoy, Helen Wallace, Frances Pruitt and Christine Hartman.

"Everyday Sheroes" was the title bestowed to eight women Friday evening at the Resource Center for Women's 11th annual tribute to women. Anne DiNapoli, Victoria Gaskin, Deborah Hill, Myrtle McTier, Peg Nunn, Patricia O'Farrell, Louise C. Taylor and Lynette Gill were recognized for their contributions to community and families.

Myrtle Smith-Caroll received the Trailblazer Award in ceremonies held at the Enoch D. Davis Center in St. Petersburg.

Among those attending the awards ceremony and the business showcase afterward were Dolores K. Benjamin, Fannie Howard, Dianne Speights, Hugh Ann Cason-Kelly, Paula Blanda, Lenne Nicklaus Ball, Karol Bullard, Lori and Gregg Nicklaus, Mary Clowers, Betty Hayward and Carl Lavender.

I met Jack and Charlotte Emmert, who will celebrate their 53rd wedding anniversary Christmas Day, as they visited with Nunn. The Emmerts were best man and matron of honor when she and the late Harold Nunn were married in 1972.

Two members of the Chris Styles Trio -- Maurice Fontaine on keyboard and Melvin Webb, drums -- presented music for the evening. Styles, who plays the trumpet, was out of commission for the evening; he told me he had hurt his lip.

The Resource Center for Women, whose focus is helping people achieve emotional strength, economic stability and self-sufficiency, is celebrating its 25th year.

Alicia and Stacey Barlow, who have roles in George M! at the St. Petersburg Little Theatre, are daughters of Bill and Michelle Barlow. Communications gremlins led me to connect them with another family in Sunday's column.

The musical continues at 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

LOOKING AHEAD

Monday

ST. PETERSBURG PANHELLENIC HAPPY HOUR: For members, guests. 5:30 p.m., Marchand's at the Vinoy, Renaissance Vinoy Resort, 501 Fifth Ave. NE, St. Petersburg. 525-9838.

-- Mary Jane Park can be reached at (727) 893-8267; fax (727) 893-8675; e-mail park@sptimes.com; P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.

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