FESTIVAL INSTITUTE
Festival Institute, Round Top Texas, sits on a 200-acre plot of land just north of town. What began in 1976 as the dream of three friends, Lamar Lentz, Richard Royal, and concert pianist James Dick, has evolved into a world renowned musical enclave. The centerpiece of the Institute is an acoustically amazing 1,000 seat concert hall. Built over a 25-year period, it is now complete. The hall is accompanied by two large Victorian mansions and a Gothic church, complete with its original pipe organ, all relocated onto the Institute’s grounds from the surrounding environs, then restored to their former glory. The site is lavishly appointed with stone pathways leading to numerous statues and sculptures, grottos and follies, even a man-made lake, in the best English tradition.
Patti Brown and I first became aware of Festival Institute through friends. At that time Patti was the sole proprietor of the Beau Faux Studio where she taught faux painting classes to would be practitioners and serviced her interior designer clientele. Leadership at the institute became aware of Patti’s unique faux finish abilities.
One of the last tasks in the completion of the concert hall was the creation and installation of six tall columns and three large architraves to be installed on the stage. When it came time to install these elements they could have chosen to have them fabricated from the finest marble had that been their preference, however having marble components on the stage did not comport with the requirements of the acoustical engineer. Instead, six large columns with bases and capitals, and three large architraves were constructed of wood by the Institute’s resident carpenter who, with the help of an assistant, had cut and installed each of the many thousands of individual pieces of wood that cover every surface in the concert hall. Patti was charged with the task of creating the illusion of marble on the columns and architraves, using paint and a brush, to match a sample selected by James Dick himself. So, she and her assistant Margie Crisp set out on what was to become a five-week long odyssey to transform the primed wooden elements into faithful replicas of the marble of James choosing. They were given their own motorized hydronic scissor lift to assist in the painting of the elements beyond the reach of a ladder. For the duration of the project Patti and Margie spent four nights a week sleeping in the dormitory and taking their noonday meals in the dining hall.
It was after Lynne Brody and I had completed the creation of our Museum of Collectibles & Curiosities, conceived as a tribute to Patti Brown’s artwork and many collections, housed in her old art studio, and after James Dick and the Institute dedicated an evening concert performance to Patti’s memory, attended by all of our Museum’s board members, that we approached Festival Institute about outfitting a case at the Institute with photos, tools and memorabilia from the painting of the columns and architraves to honor Patti. Lynne made an appointment, then off we drove to Round Top.
Festival Institute leadership were receptive to our idea indicating they too had been considering just such a case for displaying the tools and templates used by Larry Bickelbeck, their resident carpenter and the man responsible for all of the woodworking over the twenty-five years that it took to complete the concert hall. The decision was made that both Patti and Larry could be honored in the same case. Once this option was settled upon, a suitable case was secured, and with the help of Michaele and David Haynes, two of our Museum’s board members who both had professional experience designing and installing museum displays, we made our selection from the many Bickelbeck and Brown items. One Saturday morning after the case had been set into place, the four of us met at the Institute, and in one long day arranged and installed all of the elements of the displays. The case now stands adjacent to the concert hall, honoring the two artists/craftsmen instrumental in the creation of the hall’s beautiful decorative elements.
