AVAM's angels and other aliens

The preview party for the American Visionary Art Museum's new exhibition, "We Are Not Alone: Angels and Other Aliens," certainly proved that premise. About 700 earthly beings, some in wild makeup and costumes, milled among images of unearthly beings on the museum's walls and pedestals.

Tinsel-haloed "angels" gazed at those in immortalized in oil. "Death," carrying a cardboard sickle, dawdled among designs of devils and deities. And some glittering "extraterrestrials" joined other guests dancing in the museum's art barn.

Spotted in the colorful crowd were Rebecca Hoffberger, AVAM director and founder; Susan Subtle Dintenfass, exhibition curator; Fred Lazarus, Sister Charlotte Kerr and Sandra Magsamen, board members; DeVon Smith, Betty Ann Luca and Norbert Kox, exhibition artists; Gayle Economos, public-relations consultant; and Marty Bass, WJZ-TV personality.