25 years of shrimp

As partygoers enter through the doors of Ector County Coliseum’s Building G for the 25th annual Shrimpfest on Feb. 28, they’ll be greeted with the sights, sounds and tastes of New Orleans – without the traveling expenses.

“This is our largest fundraiser. It’s really a social event people look forward to,” Ellen Noël board president Mark Knox said.

The undeniable stars of the night are those curly crustaceans that head chef Gabe Grewell and a horde of museum volunteers cook in a bevy of options. The main recipe from Pascal’s Manale Restaurant is back from the banks of the old Mississippi, along with a boiled shrimp, shrimp fritters, a Mexican shrimp cocktail, Shrimp Noël and Grewell’s own Shrimp Pontchartrain.

While the shrimp may get a Cajun twist, Grewell said they’re all Texan brown shrimp straight from the Gulf of Mexico. Grewell and his crew will spend all afternoon Feb. 28 cooking more than 1,400 pounds of shrimp to a crowd in excess of 1,500.

But before a single shrimp hits the frying pan, organizers and volunteers will start preparations Feb. 25 to convert the barren bones of Building G into a place of Mardis Gras fun.

Shrimpfest chairman Liz Roberson said the committee is working on a new layout for the event, complete with large flat panels painted to look like Bourbon Street. From the entrance, guests can either peruse the items up for bid at the silent auction or go straight to their tables to feast on the seafood delights. At the end of the building, the sounds of Main Stream Jazz Quartet will provide the evening’s soundtrack.

“We’re trying to add enough variety yet keep it enough the same,” Roberson said.

The massive effort at Shrimpfest benefits educational and operational costs at the Ellen Noël Art Museum. Roberson said she hopes the event will raise $130,000, nearly the same amount as the 2010 event brought in.

“It benefits the museum, and that’s what we want to do so the museum can continue to operate and operate for free,” Roberson said at the Shrimpfest preview party.

Ellen Noël curator of education Doylene Land said the money from Shrimpfest is an integral part of keeping the museum’s programs functioning. Along with its summer art camps, Land hopes the profits will help expand the museum’s adult education programs.

“We’ve been doing (adult classes) for a while, just not very often,” Land said. “We’re trying to get more of a routine trying to build up our adult education population, but it does take time.”

The money will also help the museum in its first year as an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.  As only the second Smithsonian affiliate in Texas, Ellen Noël has access to collections from the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Portrait Gallery and other Smithsonian Institutions.

Ellen Noël executive director Les Reker said the museum is also planning on opening a museum store and orientation center for visitors to “extend their visit.”

“We’ll have a number of things – games and books and toys – that will relate to art,” Reker said of what will be included at the museum store.

With so many programs benefitting from the single night, volunteers are hard at work making sure everything turns out just right for Shrimpfest.

“It’s a lot of hard work. They dedicate themselves to this project, and we all enjoy it,” Ellen Noël board of trustee member Viki Haner said. “The community helps by attending and meeting our goal every year.”