Gallery: Mad Hatter’s Ball

An Art Team paints a large image of the Cheshire Cat during the second round of the competition.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

It was pure madness at the Peninsula School of Art on Jan. 23 as dozens of attendees donning costumes of the whimsical characters from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland descended upon the first Mad Hatter’s Ball. Seven art teams competed in madcap, timed events for the highlight of the night, making structures of oversized playing cards, large-scale paintings inspired by the 1865 literary nonsense novel, and steampunk versions of the White Rabbit using hardware scraps and miscellaneous bits. DJ Boll Scribblies (Josh Boll) provided the music as guests nibbled on Wonderland-themed finger foods and adult concoctions. The Mad Hatter’s Ball was the celebratory component of the art school’s first Artists in Wonderland exhibition, featuring small-scale works in a variety of media.