by Chadd Scott
Last updated: 8:00 PM ET, Fri October 11, 2019
In the movie "Midnight in Paris," Owen Wilson's character finds a portal back through time while wandering the streets of Paris at midnight. He finds himself partying in the 1920s with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. He also crosses paths with Salvador Dali.
The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida doesn't have a time machine, but it does have a "Surreal Circus" and that's as close as you'll come to partying with the master of Surrealism.
"Through the 1940s when Dalí sought refuge in the United States during World War II, he began mingling with the Marx Brothers, Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney, which led to parties with Hollywood's elite," The Dalí Museum's Curator of Education Peter Tush said. "It was during this time that he hosted the most memorable, and bizarre, costume party of the decade."
Dali's "Surrealistic Night in an Enchanted Forest" at the posh Hotel Del Monte in Monterey, California featured a guest list including Bob Hope and a young Gloria Vanderbilt. Live animals were brought in from a zoo.
That's the feel the Dalí Museum aspires to with its "Suenos de Dalí" (Dreams of Dali) Surreal Circus October 26.
"As one would expect at a night under the big top, the evening's entertainment will include live music, fire dancers and breathers, stilt walkers and an array of other circus entertainment to delight and surprise," Dalí Museum Marketing Director Beth Bell said. "Guests will be showered with a cascade of surprise, glamor, whimsy and a hint of decadence with themed bars, tempting tastes, live entertainment and performance art-all to benefit The Dalí Museum's mission as a nonprofit organization, to serve as a cultural resource in the community."
Costumes are encouraged.
"Dalí's surreal art and life brings out the creative and fantastical in our guests-you can see this on display in the amazing costumes they conceive for the party," Bell said.
What is St. Petersburg's connection to Dalí which provides for the largest collection of his work in the world to be housed here?
Nothing.
In the mid-1970s when A. Reynolds and Eleanor Morse began looking to donate their entire collection of Dalí artwork amassed over four decades, few existing institutions were willing to accept the Morse's requirement that their enormous collection be kept intact. A St. Petersburg businessman read about the predicament in 1980 in the Wall Street Journal and convinced a group of local advocates to pitch the Morse's on the idea of bringing the collection to Florida. They were sold.
The Dalí Museum originally opened in 1982 in a remodeled marine warehouse. In 2011, a new museum building with a breathtaking design was opened at a cost of $36 million. Situated on Tampa Bay, the Dalí collection now includes over 2,400 works from every moment and in every medium of his artistic activity, including oil paintings, many original drawings, book illustrations, artists' books, prints, sculpture, photos, manuscripts and an extensive archive of documents.
The Dalí Museum joins the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, the recently-opened James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, the (Dale) Chihuly Collection and Morean Arts Center, along with a growing gallery scene to create a surprisingly robust and distinguished downtown arts district.
For Dalí, over time, the art and the artist became one; his parties contributed to that melding.
"Dalí worked hard to generate new ideas constantly and part of that drive created a life that became as interesting as his paintings," Tush said. "Dalí wanted to sustain the dreamlike world of his paintings in daily life, and in his autobiography, The Secret Life, he recounts a life that feels as fantastic as his art."
For one night, you can taste that fantasy.
As an example, "Suenos de Dalí" features a themed craft cocktail menu. The Ringmaster, Old St Pete Whiskey and Milo's Famous Tea whipped with raw Florida honey and an orange wheel promises to put a Surrealist painting in your mouth.
If you can't make it to St. Pete for this year's "Surreal Circus," you can host a DIY Dalí party. The artist wrote one of the most unusual cookbooks ever, published in 1973, encouraging and preparing readers to host appropriately surreal dinner parties.
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