Annaly Bennett, Pasadena Art Alliance

For those of the 45-and-under set who believe “hip” began with whatever you were doing to amuse yourself in college, let us disabuse you of this notion. The ladies of the Pasadena Art Alliance were tossing around the sass and raising money when the only hip you knew was your mother’s as you straddled it in your diaper.

Consider this from one of PAA’s stellar fundraising publications, Wive’s Tales: Some Old, Some New, Some Borrowed, Some True:

A glass of ice water before meals fills the stomach, quenches the thirst and helps prevent overindulgence. (I’ve been doing this for years, though I use white wine instead of water.)

For decades these gals have been locally famed for their biennial Art Auction, which has raised $1,500,000 since its inception. But for sheer élan and staggering commitment, nothing beats the Treasure Sale, an event that has been off the roster for several years—but is returning in a blaze of glory on March 31st and April 1st.

These wild, wonderful doyennes, who are dedicated to the support of cutting-edge contemporary visual art, have ended a five-year sabbatical from their famously fabulous Treasure Sale. With 52 years under its stylish belt and more than $3 milion in arts-organizations grants to its credit, the Pasadena Art Alliance is once again poised to kick a little fundraising derrière and have a glorious time doing it, in eighteen rooms its members have decorated in the former Homestead House furniture store.

The Treasure Sale’s five-year hiatus only helped to replenish attics and closets with art, antiques, a king’s ransom of dazzling décor, baubles galore, and Great-Aunt Agatha’s secret stash of love letters from…oh we daren’t say, my dear. The ladies have loaded up their minivans and hybrids and, for all we know, an on-call fleet of eighteen-wheelers, to haul the goodies to the Homestead House site, where discerning Pasadena folk will empty their pockets, thereby filling the coffers of the Art Alliance, which will, in turn, continue its passionate support of contemporary art.

Annaly Bennett, co-chair of the Art Alliance Treasure Sale, chatted with us in between unpacking boxes.

1. How do you even know where to start on this enormous event after a five-year hiatus?

Well, about 175 incredible women of several generations make up the Art Alliance. It is a very intellectually curious and stimulating group, not afraid of new ideas. I am a new member this year, co-chairing the Treasure Sale with Joan Aarestad and Georgina Whitford. None of us has ever even been to the sale, but let me tell you, everyone is so happy that we’re heading it up. It is so collaborative, and this sale has a life of its own. Over the years, Art Alliance parties have not tended to be what you’d call tame.

What sets this apart from other charity sales is that ours is staged room by room, so the personalities of our members really come through. It is fun and whimsical and very labor intensive. I look to the women who have done this for a long time; they really know what they’re doing. For example, we have Mibbs Wolfe, who is generally credited with the master plan. Mibbs is a designer in her 80s, and she’s always coming up with brilliant schemes. She is a dynamo.

2. Who are some of the artists the Art Alliance has supported over the years?

We sponsored Andy Warhol’s first one-man show in California at the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon) in the early ‘60s. I remember attending that show as a little girl. And there was the Marcel Duchamp retrospective, also at the Pasadena Art Museum. He was quite old, but he came to Pasadena and stayed at the Castle Green—and I know that he played chess with a naked lady as a piece that was a part of the event. We’ve supported so many arts organizations over the years that I hesitate to name some and leave out others. But we do have a website now, so people can see the range of arts organizations in Southern California that we support.

Antiques, lots of furnishings, lighting, art.… We’re very much about décor—we kicked off our collecting this year with the entire contents of a beach house. There is some really fine clothing and some jewelry. We’re picky about what goes in to the sale.

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3 Favorites 

1. Tell me about a favorite childhood experience here in Pasadena.

As a child I took art classes at the original Pasadena Museum of Art when it was at what is now the Pacific Asia Museum, and they showed us Frank Stella and Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollack. It was so new and exciting – hot off the press—and they had us imitating that incredible art.

2. What do you love about Pasadena?

It has a real sense of community. People know each other and are responsible to each other. After many years of living away, it is great to move back as a woman with a family.

3. Okay, we know you’ve seen all the goodies coming in for the sale. Do you have your eye on something?

There are these nineteenth-century etchings.…

 — by Jill Alison Ganon

Pasadena Art Alliance Treasure Sale

Saturday, March 31 and Sunday, April 1

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Admission free

680 E. Colorado Blvd. (at the former Homestead House)

Ed. note: To learn more about the Pasadena Art Alliance go to www.pasadenaartalliance.org.