Fogg Museum Celebrates 50th With Fundraising Spectacular

Flowers, champagne and music graced the Fogg Saturday night as the museum celebrated its 50th year in its present building with a lavish ball. The party, attended by over 600 people, not only feted the Fogg's past but advanced the teaching museum's future; it is a key element in a $15 million fundraising campaign presently underway at the Fogg.

Cutting a multi-layered cake in the center of the courtyard at midnight, a beaming Seymour Slive, director of the Fogg, announced: "The Fogg has no middle-age crisis!" Slive, the staff, and the Friends of the Fogg have been working hard to give the museum a more-than-human life.

"This ball is a party for all those who have helped out this year," Mary Rose Maybank, membership officer, said. The Fogg has reason to congratulate itself on its recent accomplishments; the major exhibitions up now are only two of the impressive shows the museum has had this year.

The Fogg intends to use the money gathered from the ball, along with other funds raised in the drive, to expand. The museum is in the process of acquiring Allston Burr Hall and the two houses adjacent to it on Cambridge St. from the University, sources say. The Fogg plans to raze these buildings and erect a new complex on the site, thus gaining badly needed exhibition and library space. The ball, it is estimated, will contribute some $10,000 towards this goal.