SOLD OUT: Christmas Dinner

NOTE: This event is sold out

Holiday Greetings with Charlie Russell

December 10, 2021

Kuyper Dining Pavilion

6 p.m. – Doors open
6:30 p.m. – Dinner
7 p.m. – Artist Spotlight

This event is sold out!

Enjoy Christmas music throughout the evening with concert pianist, Shaun Balch.

Our buffet dinner includes prime beef tenderloin, chef’s potato, seasonal vegetables, mixed green salad, and decadent desserts.

Following dinner, Whitney Western Art Museum Curator, Karen McWhorter, presents a spotlight sharing images and insights into cowboy artist Charlie Russell’s Christmas cards and other Christmas-themed work in the Whitney Collection. Russell created witty and endearing illustrated letters for friends and family throughout his career, and when the holidays rolled around, he crafted fun, festive greetings. True to his jovial reputation, Russell added dashes of humor and lightheartedness to skilled drawings of Santa Claus, snow scenes, sleigh rides—and overserved cowboys! Don’t miss the chance to see in person several rarely exhibited, personalized holiday notes, and a sculpture created for a Christmas dinner centerpiece made by the one and only Charlie Russell.

Tickets for our Christmas Dinner were $40 per person plus tax.

About Concert Pianist Shaun Balch

Shaun Balch, Zimbabwean-born pianist, began playing piano at age 9. He studied under Diana DeWet, an acclaimed pianist credited as being the youngest-ever performer to win the Royal College of Music examination performance. He has also studied under Israeli concert pianist Dr. Paul Renan. Balch is credited with being the youngest performer in Southern Africa to win the Open Pianists’ Improvisational award; a title he retained for 3 consecutive years. He also competed in numerous competitions in his native Zimbabwe. Balch left Zimbabwe at age 19 to pursue his career in piano performance at the Welsh College of Music, where he was one of four individuals chosen to study under scholarship. Balch, however, walked away from his lifelong dream to pursue integration between his faith and music. He obtained his PhD in Clinical Counseling in 2012. Balch’s playing is a rare combination of passionate expression that goes beyond the spoken word and technical mastery of the instrument.

About Curator Karen McWhorter

Karen Brooks McWhorter is the Scarlett Curator of Western American Art for the Whitney Western Art Museum. She oversees a collection of more than 10,000 objects dating to the 1830s around which she develops gallery installations, exhibitions, interpretation, and programming. McWhorter also serves as the Center’s Director of Curatorial, Education, and Museum Services. She holds an MA in Art History from University of Colorado, Boulder, is an alumna of the Denver Art Museum’s Petrie Institute of Western American Art, and is a graduate of the Museum Leadership Institute’s NextGen program.