When around 65 people gathered at SMU’s Meadows Museum on Tuesday, September 11, for a patron party to promote the museum’s upcoming fundraising gala, many of them were drawn to a commercial display at one end of the room for Natura Bissé cosmetics.
If the display seemed a little out of place at a museum dedicated to Spanish art, it actually wasn’t. It seems that Natura Bissé, a Spanish cosmetics company, is the “exclusive beauty sponsor” for the upcoming Masterpiece Gala, called “The Color of Dreams,” which will be held at the museum on Saturday, October 13. (Another Gala sponsor is Pinea Wine.)
The common denominator between the fundraiser and the cosmetics company is Gala chair Pilar Henry. “Pilar met our founder’s daughter [years ago] in Dallas,” explained Laura Munoz, director of PR and communications for Natura Bissé, whose North American headquarters is in Irving. Veronica Fisas Verges, who’s the daughter of the company’s late founder, Ricardo Fisas Mulleras, is now Natura Bissé’s CEO.
Veronica’s friend Pilar and her husband, Jay Henry, were among those happily chit-chatting at the party along with the likes of Peggy and Carl Sewell—they are the Gala’s honorary chairs—and Linda and Bill Custard (she chairs the Meadows Museum Advisory Council).
Others attending the evening event included Gail and R. Gerald Turner—Gerald is president of Southern Methodist University—Laura Wilson, Nancy Dedman, Angela and Brad Cheves (he is SMU’s vice president for development and external affairs) and Mary and Robert Potter.
During some brief “formal” remarks, Sam Holland, the dean of SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, thanked Pilar as well as the school’s trustees for their work on the first-ever fundraising Gala. Then Mark Roglan, the Meadows Museum director, also thanked the organizers, calling Pilar “a dynamo,” and added that the Gala’s purpose was to endow a Meadows Museum Director of Education position.
So far, Mark disclosed, “over half a million” dollars has been raised for the position, although “$2 million is needed.” With that, the museum director led a tour of party-goers to another part of the museum for a look at “Dali: Poetics of the Small, 1929-1936.” The exhibition of 21 miniature paintings by Spanish surrealist Salvado Dali runs through December 9.
When everyone left, they got a goody bag including … what else? … samples of Natura Bissé cosmetics. Olé!
* Photo credit: Tamytha Cameron