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Last Monday night in New York, Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden hosted a spectacular “New York, New York” themed Royal Gala for the Mentor Foundation, featuring recognition of global philanthropists for their substance abuse prevention efforts, and performances by International R&B Star and actor Mario, and Academy Award nominated actor and recording artist Terrence Howard. This event was the NY inaugural benefit for the official launching of the Mentor Foundation in the U.S., which was founded by Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden of Sweden as a leading global drug prevention organization.
Among the many highlights of the evening, Mentor Foundation provided guests with a traditional Royal receiving line, allowing guests to greet royalty and U.N. officials on their way in. A full line-up of entertainment included an intimate acoustic performance by Terrence Howard, and a show stopping set by Mario, who performed a number of his hit records and serenaded the Queen with roses while covering a Stevie Wonder classic “Send One Your Love” that got the entire crowd cheering. The “all things” New York, New York theme was brought to life by Taxi Cab girls who escorted the guests into the venue, a double dutch performance and “Big Apple” tables with names such as Little Italy, Chelsea, and Grammercy Park. Mentor Foundation’s live auction was monitored by famed Simon de Pury of the Phillips de Pury auction house and received luxurious donations included a shop until you drop shopping spree for 4 by title sponsor H&M, trip for two to Tahitian paradise, dinner party with Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Chopard and Taffin by James de Givenchy watches, VIP Game Day with hockey player Henrik Lundquist, and a Mentor Mission and safari in Uganda. Guests also received luxury gift bags including Manolo Blahnik candles, Modo eyewear, Pevonia Skincare, John Allan’s grooming kits, Hampton Sun perfume, H&M Comme des Garcons Perfume, Borghese cosmetics and skincare, Tarte Cosmetics, and La Voce perfume by Renee Fleming.
Actress Brittany Snow and international pop star Sean Kingston also took the stage as Mentor Pop Youth Ambassador’s to introduce the POP (Prevention, Opportunity, Protection) Program, a peer to peer online substance abuse prevention, social networking site launching in 2009 in the U.S. The program’s slogan is “What’s Your Drug Free Buzz,” and the campaign will feature celebrities proclaiming their drug free buzz. Sean Kingston’s declared his drug free buzz is singing his hit songs all over the world, while Brittany’s buzz is acting. Mentor also introduced the PrevOnline program, an online and e-learning program consisting of on line chapters to be developed, monitored and supported by its international team of scientific experts targeting parents, caregivers and members of the young person’s extended family. Terrence Howard, a parent and actor, will be featured in the first PSA. The Mentor Foundation under the leadership of its president, Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden of Sweden, is based in Switzerland. It is an independent, privately funded, apolitical organization dedicated to identifying the most promising and proven approaches to substance abuse prevention and disseminating these techniques worldwide with programs in UK, Arabia, Lithuania, Columbia, Germany, Austria, and the U.S and established in 1994. For more information, please visit www.mentorfoundation.org [2]. |
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| Last Monday night a high profile crowd of New York philanthropists and politicians gathered at the Plaza where the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation (RISF) hosted the Champion’s for Children’s Gala. The evening was a celebration ofthe Foundation’s mission to revitalize Randall’s Island Park into the ultimate sports and recreation destination for New York City. The Foundation’s objective is to provide free programming for more than 14,000 children from the Island’s neighboring communities of East Harlem and the South Bronx. Randall’s Island is on the East River, part of the borough of Manhattan, separated from it on the west by the river’s main channel, from Queens on the east by Hell Gate and from the Bronx on the north by Bronx Kill. The Dutch used it for farming. A British settler named Montresor owned it and lived there until the Revolution when the British Army used it to launch their attacks on Manhattan. The city acquired it in 1835 from the heirs of its then owner, a man named Jonathan Randal. In the 1800s it was used as an orphan asylum, poor house and burial ground for the poor as well as a rest home for Civil War veterans and a reform school for juvenile delinquents.
At that time Randall’s Island was a remote piece of land of makeshift playing fields and empty lots that several New York private schools used for their Phys Ed and sports activities. During those days she went to watch her children play there, she could see that it was just a great opportunity waiting to be developed into a playground of all kinds of sports and outdoor activities for the children of the neighborhoods (who had no adequate outdoor facilities) just across the river. When she first began, she sought advice of Betsy Barlow Rogers who was one of the founders of the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy. Rogers could see that the task at hand was monumental and she advised Mrs. Cohen that it would probably take her a good fifteen years to actualize her vision. In retrospect, that time-frame turned out to be accurate. In the beginning Mrs. Cohen canvassed friends to be supporters, including then businessman/ philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, to raise initial funds to get the ball rolling. Another friend, art dealer Linda Silverman got Carl Icahn involved which led to the building of the sports field and stadium there. More than 400 guests attended the reception and dinner. Otis Livingston was Master of Ceremonies. The program began with a surprise guest appearance from Saturday Night Live comedian Darrell Hammond, who delivered punchy political jokes and excellent impersonations of John McCain and Bill Clinton. Hammond then presented Mayor Michael Bloomberg with a special Sport of the City Award – a pair of custom NIKE sneakers specially designed in New York State’s official colors of blue and orange.
The second honoree was Wendy Paulson, Chair, RARE; Trustee, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and wife of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Mrs. Paulson received the Environmental Steward Award presented by John Flicker, President of the Audubon Society. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the third and final award of the night to her friend, Susan Patricof, Founder of the Susan Patricof Head Start Center in Harlem, with the Youth Leadership Award. The event raised $850,000 for the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation. Guests included: Secretary Paulson, SNL creator, Lorne Michaels, Former New York Mayor, David Dinkins, Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Randall’s Island Sports Foundation Chairman Rich Davis, Foundation President and Founder Karen Cohen, and Randall’s Island Sports Foundation Board members: Patricia A. Begley, Rodney Cohen, Susan Danilow, Jerome L. Goldman, Sunil K. Gulati, Dean I. Landis, Nancy F. Neff, Bimla Picot, Elizabeth Sawyer Press, Patricia W. Shifke, Waide Warner. |
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| The Thursday before last, the Young Audiences Arts for Learning held its 2008 benefit gala dinner dance at the Waldorf where they honored Merryl H. Tisch. Co-chairs were the Mesdames Michel P. Fribourg, Maurice R. Greenberg, and John L. Weinberg. Business co-chairs were Mr. and Mrs. Henry Arnhold, John and Jody Arnhold, as well as Thomas Berner, Minette and Charles Cooper, John Creamer, Susanne B. Emmerich, Effie and Robert Fribourg, James H. Gellert, Marilyn Walter Grounds, David Houser, Marjorie Hyman, Mrs. Stephen M. Kellen, Mrs. William R. Kimball, Carol and Robert Krinsky, Mimi Levitt, Lisa and Lewis Liman, Lady Maughan, Sue B. Mercy, Adele R. Moskovitz, Nadine and Jerrold Newman,Jane and Bill Pearson, Elisabeth de Picciotto, Meridel Prideaux, Dina Recanati, Barbara S. Robinson, Caroline and Jonathan Rosen, Edith and Martin Segal, Betty Lynn and Bernard Steinweg, Kiono and Brooks Thomas, Mrs. James P. Warburg, Nola L. Whiteman, and Elaine Wolfensohn. |
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| Garth Fagan dancers. |
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| Founded in 1952, Young Audiences Arts for Learning is the nation’s leading source of arts-in-education services. Their goal is to help the broad network of YA Arts for Learning affiliates play a decisive role in children’s development. This year, YA Arts for Learning’s artists will reach more than 7.5 million young people throughout the country. At a time when America’s social, business and arts agendas are increasingly focused on education, your support is more important than ever before. |
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| The Girl Scout Council of Greater New York celebrated its 16th Annual Women of Distinction Breakfast by honoring six remarkable women: Maryam Banikarim, Susan Chapman, Wanda Hill, Sara Queen, Deborah Roberts, and Shana Madoff Swanson at the Hilton New York. Deborah Norville served as Mistress of Ceremonies. Cheryl L. Swiatkowski was the Breakfast Chair. Guests included Mary Phipps, Susan Nitze, Nancy Glaser, Patrice Tanaka, Eddy Bayardelle, Kimberly Bishop, Bernard Madoff, Gale Brewer, Kathy Brand, Kathy Chenault, Carmen Dubroc, Lynn Foster, Heide Gardner, Debi Fine, Claudia Kahn, Fernanda Kellogg, Tonya Lewis Lee, Cindi Lieve, Bernadette Longford, Sherry Matays, Lisa Sivy, Alyssa Moeder, Melanie Mortimer, Janet Nettleson Otto, Robert Ouimette, Malaak Compton-Rock, Westina Matthews Shatteen, Ann Tisch, David Ushery and Caryn Zucker. |
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Dolores Swirin, Wanda Hill, Maryam Banikarim, Deborah Roberts, Irene O’Hare, Shana Madoff Swanson, Pat Stensrud, Sara Queen, Carmen Dubroc, Deborah Norville, Susan Chapman, and Cheryl Swiatkowski |
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| For more than 96 years, Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make New York City and the world a better place. Proceeds from the breakfast will help fund vital services and educational programs for thousands of Girl Scouts throughout the five boroughs. Visit www.girlscoutsnyc.org [5] for further information. |
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| Up at the Guggenheim earlier this month (November 13) Palestinian artist Emily Jacir was named the winner of the HUGO BOSS PRIZE 2008, announced by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and HUGO BOSS and celebrated with a glamorous cocktail celebration at the Guggenheim attended by over 1,000 people. Present at the event were HUGO BOSS Vice President of Worldwide Communication Phillip Wolff, Guggenheim curator Nancy Spector and Guggenheim Director Thomas Krens. Guests of HUGO BOSS included Julianne Moore and Anna Chlumsky (in BOSS BLACK), Stanley Tucci, John Slattery and Talia Balsam of Mad Men, BOSS Pure model Chris Austad, Glenda Bailey, Donald Baechler, Christopher Wool, Klaus Biesenbach, Annabel Tollman, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, Kim Heirston, Kai Kuhne, Lady Liliana Cavendish, Oliver Jackson Cohen, Olya and Charles Thompson, Melissa Bent, Paul and Dayssi de Kanavos, Shala Monroque, Julie Gilhart, Alanna Heiss, Ryan McGinness, Annabelle Selldorf, Mary Barone, Andrew and Sommers Farkas, Gemma Gambee, Stellan Holm, Paul Kasmin, Sebastian Piras, Izak Senbahar, Agnes Gund, Lisa de Kooning and Zaldy. The event went until the wee hours of the morning, with guests dancing to the music of legendary DJ Tom Finn and nibbled on treats from Glorious Foods. |
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The scene at the Guggenheim |
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| The award was established in 1996 to recognize significant achievement in contemporary art. Emily Jacir, who will receive a stipend of $100,000 was selected by an international jury of museum curators and directors. A solo exhibition featuring the artist’s work will be on view at the Guggenheim Museum from February 6th through April 15, 2009. In addition to Ms. Jacir, the artists short-listed by the jury were Christoph Büchel (Switzerland), Patty Chang (USA), Sam Durant (USA), Joachim Koester (Denmark) and Roman Signer (Switzerland). Since its inception, the HUGO BOSS PRIZE has been awarded to the American artist Matthew Barney (1996), Scottish artist Douglas Gordon (1998), Marjetica Potrč from Slovenia (2000), the French artist Pierre Huyghe (2002), Rirkrit Tiravanija from Thailand (2004) and Tacita Dean from United Kingdom (2006). |
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Thomas Krens, Emily Jacir, and Phillip Wolff |
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| Emily Jacir (b.1970, Palestine) received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Dallas at Irving and a Master of Fine Arts from the Memphis College of Art. She also participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in 1998-99 and currently lives and works in Ramallah, Palestine, and New York. Spanning a diverse range of mediums Jacir's work addresses repressed historical narratives, politicized land divisions, movement (both forced and voluntary) and the logic of the archive. Her practice has involved working directly with the Palestinian community and the larger Arab community both locally and internationally through collaborative exchange and social interventions. In their statement, the jurors describe their selection: “Emily Jacir’s rigorous conceptual practice—comprising photography, video, performance, and installation-based work—bears witness to a culture torn by war and displacement. As a member of the Palestinian diaspora, she comments on issues of mobility (or the lack thereof), border crises, and historical amnesia through projects that unearth individual narratives and collective experiences. Jacir combines the roles of archivist, activist, and poet to create poignant and memorable works of art that are at once intensely personal and deeply political. It is the refined sophistication of Jacir's art and the relevance of her concerns—both global and local—in a time of war, transnationalism, and mass migration that led us to award her the 2008 Hugo Boss Prize.” |
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| Doubles’ Junior Associates celebrated the private club’s re-opening after interior designer Tom Britt’s re-decorating with A Night at the Moulin Rouge. Guests were asked to wear a touch of red, perhaps like the new red crocodile leather banquettes. Co-Chairs were Allison and Jay Aston, Marisa Noel Brown, Nicole Hanley, Elizabeth Meigher, Nick Papanicolaou, Tatiana G. P. Perkin, John Royall and Georgina Schaeffer. The evening was tres joyeux. Sherry and Sam Pryor, Caroline Rowley, Nat Fog, Avery Broadband, Bob Anderson, Kate and Andrew Earls, Elizabeth Morse, Erica and Jack Howard-Potter, Lauren Armstrong, Fernando Diaz Barroso, Catherine and Joshua Smith, Rochelle Goldberg, John Burke, Viviana Karamanis, Paul Cruickshank, Nicole Kotova, Andrea Tese, Grace Cacucciolo, Dana Sambery, Darcy Jones, Stephanie Staub, Kerina Saade, Emily Graham, Alessandra Baker, Laura Zuckerman were among the colorful guests. |
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| Lenox Hill Neighborhood House’s Associates Committee “Celebrated the Neighborhood” at a glamorous benefit which started with cocktails at Judith Leiber’s beautifully decorated boutique on Madison Avenue at 61st Street. There were several hundred young Upper East Siders who attended the Black Tie pre-holiday gathering which ran from about 7 to 9 when everyone then strolled down Fifth Avenue to Doubles for dinner and dancing. Judith Leiber shared the benefit sponsorship with Per Se and several party chairs wore evening clothes from the collection. Three lucky women were the recipients of a drawing for Judith Leiber evening bags and a Per Se gift certificate. What turned out to be a really great dinner dance also had the added advantage of raising funds for Lenox Hill Neighborhood House. |
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| Whitney Library Fellow co chairs Michele Gerber Klein and Fiona Donovan hosted a festive evening of story telling, art and cocktails with writer Adam Gopnik, sculptor Petyah Coyne, and painter Marcia King. The evening was held at King's loft in the Broome Street artist's building that was the subject for Gopnik's popular "Soho Stories,” first published in The New Yorker in the 1980s, just before the author left for France to write From Paris to the Moon. |
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Chrissie Iles, Adam Gopnik, Petah Coyne, and Fiona Donovan |
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| Gopnik read the witty tales prominently feature both King and Coyn -- under pseudonyms of course -- to an appreciative group including Adam Weinberg, Flora Biddle, Wendy Vanderbilt Lehman, Aggie Gund, Peter Norton, Angela Chang, DiDi and Beatrice Pei, Peter Wolf, Dana Buckley and Spencer Tompkins, Mike Latham and James Proseck. |
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| The Whitney Library Fellows support the museum’s library, which has grown from the few hundred books of Fiona Donovan's great grandmother Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s personal library in the 1930s to nearly 50,000 titles. Among those are rare exhibition catalogues, periodicals, photographs, artist illustrated books, artist and writer folios, recordings of artist’s lectures and interviews, artist’s files and archival and research materials, artists’ correspondence and ephemera: all of which is an essential tool for curators, museum members, art historians, artists, graduate students and other researchers. |
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| Photographs by Elsa Ruiz (Young Audiences); Cutty McGill (Doubles); PatrickMcMullan.com (Hugo). | Click here [6] for NYSD Contents |