WINE WEEKEND

Presented by Glenn Mosby at the General Membership Meeting on April 28, 2022.

I was president of the Stuart Society from May, 2010 to May of 2011

In those days our fundraisers were the Fashion Show, a gala to celebrate the opening of the winter exhibition and Art in Bloom.

But that was the year the Dali opened their new museum and they asked that we not hold a fundraiser in January when all of their festivities were happening.  Of course that’s exactly when we had planned to do ours but we honored their request.  We couldn’t hold the fundraiser for the opening so we had to come up with something later in the year.

Joann Barger, Ways and Means chair, Margaret Amley and Pat Campbell-Stichweh, the gala chairs and I met to figure out what to do.   We decided we would do a small wine auction-get our friends and supporters to donate a little wine, maybe get some wineries to donate and get a trip or two.  It would not be hard.

We had no idea what we were getting involved in.  We talked to people who ran the Naples Wine Auction and those who ran the one at the High Museum in Atlanta.  They were so helpful and we learned a lot.

We learned we had to get a distributor because we could not receive wine from out of state and we learned that in order to auction wine, we had to have something called a Special Sales Permit from the state.  We hired an attorney who helped us get the permit (and she helped us every year we held the wine auction) and Tom Erik Bockman-Pederson, who owns American Spirits served as our distributor.

And so we were off!  It seemed like every Stuart Society member pitched in to help.  Many members who had extensive wine collection donated really fine wine.  People in the St Petersburg community did too! The wine procurement team and Carol Treichel worked tirelessly to get wine from California and put together luxury trips.  Margaret asked Eliza Osbourne of Sotheby’s in New York to be our auctioneer and she said yes!  We had an incredible team and somehow managed to sell the event out.  There were 176 people in attendance.  We had a preview party the week before and then the event started with a silent auction in the Marly room and then dinner and a live Auction in the Conservatory.

That year we grossed $103,000 and netted $66,112.00.  We were thrilled, grateful and tired!

As most of you know, the Stuart Society continued to hold the wine auction for 7 more years.  Many, many Stuart Society members worked on this fundraiser over the years, making lasting friendships in the process.  I do want to single out one person in particular who took our wine auction to the next level.  At either the first or second wine auction, Pat Rossignol came up to me and said, you know, Glenn, I can help y’all with this. I know lots of people.  And help us, she did.  Through her foresights and contacts in the wine world, and luxury market, she elevated our event to a world class event known as Wine weekend.

The wine auction was held for 8 years and netted more than $2,000,000 for the MFA.  When I think back, I am still amazed at what our initial idea became.  Through the commitment and dedication of so many Stuart Society members, we were able to create and sustain an event which was not only a lot of fun but am important friend and fundraiser for the Museum of Fine Arts.