Kravis Center’s Gala Night of Stars Benefit puts shine on educational programming
L. to r.: Natalie Stone and Harvey Bloomberg; Lori and Harold Corrigan; Bill Meyer and Llywd Ecclestone.
The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts held its Gala Night of Stars Benefit in the Weiner Banquet Center’s Gimelstob Ballroom in the new Eunice and Julian Cohen Pavilion.

Fittingly, Carol Cohen served as Chairman of the gala, which transformed the Gimelstob Ballroom into an intimate supper club for the evening. Elaine Gimelstob and Elaine Langone were Co-Chairmen of the event and the gala Honorary Chairman was Renate Dreyfoos.
Helen Persson and Alex Dreyfoos
Kravis Center Chairman Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. welcomed donors and guests to the gala and made a special announcement that Dorothy and Sidney A. Kohl of Palm Beach made a $1 million gift to the Kravis Center’s Encore Campaign, an ongoing fund-raising effort to pay for the Cohen Pavilion expansion project.

In recognition of their outstanding gift to the Encore Campaign, the Atrium Lobby of the Cohen Pavilion will be named in honor of the Kohls.
During another highlight of the evening, Mr. Dreyfoos announced Helen K. Persson as recipient of the Dreyfoos Award, bestowed upon an individual whose service, generosity and leadership truly are inspirational.

Mrs. Persson is a past Gala Co-Chairman, and serves on the Board of Directors of both the Kravis Center and the Palm Beach Opera.
Lewis and Mary Schott with Elaine and Kenneth Langone
Kenneth Langone, Stanley Rumbough, and Bernard Marden
Tables were covered in leopard print tablecloths, complemented by animal-print trim found on the centerpieces, which were filled with red roses, white hydrangeas and gardenias. Beaded lampshades and classic silver candlesticks completed the ambient décor, designed by Rafanelli Events.

Beginning with cocktails and canapés in the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Foundation Pre-Function Hall, more than 300 guests later dined on Jumbo Lump Crab Timbale, and Grilled Filet Mignon “Rossini” with Sweet Potato Napoleon and Exotic Mushrooms prepared by executive banquet chef Jeff Simms and his staff at Special Impressions at the Kravis Center, Catering by The Breakers. A Petite Apple Tarte Tatin with Caramel Sauce, Chocolate Cup with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and fresh fruit for dessert topped off the menu. Yum.
Keith Lockhart and Lucia Lin
Boston Pops Orchestra Conductor Keith Lockhart and his wife, acclaimed classical violinist Lucia Lin, collaborated on a dinner program as the featured entertainment. A post-dinner performance by Broadway star Lisa Vroman (Aspects of Love, The Phantom of the Opera) and her accompanist Brad Carroll added to the gala’s “supper club” theme.
The evening ended with dance music provided by the Boston Pops Combo. The event raised $240,000 for the Kravis Center’s educational programming.

KL Group, LLC and Kochman & Braun PLC generously co-sponsored the gala performance. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Schott, and Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Marden sponsored the dinner-dance, and Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Gimelstob generously underwrote the décor. Mr. and Mrs. Julian Cohen provided travel for the entertainers. The valet services were provided by Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Langone, and the dinner-dance orchestra, consisting of members of the Boston Pops orchestra, was underwritten by Mr. and Mrs. Barry Crown. Tiffany & Co. graciously donated the favors for the event.

Table underwriters at the event were Mr. and Mrs. Julian Cohen, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Jack N. Friedman, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Gimelstob, Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Montgomery, Jr., Northern Trust, Mr. and Mrs. A. T. Persson, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Lewis M. Schott, Mr. and Mrs. Carl J. Shapiro and Zeidler Partnership, Inc.

The Gala Night of Stars Benefit is the Kravis Center’s largest fund-raising event during the year. On May 22, the Young Friends of the Kravis Center will present its annual Reach for the Stars evening of gourmet food and wine tasting in the Kravis Center lobby. Reach for the Stars also raises money for the Center’s educational programming.
Marshall and Marianne Hess with Shirley Levy
Robert and Ellen Jaffe
Rose Sachs with Alex and Renate Dreyfoos
Ruth and Carl Shapiro
Dorothy and Sidney Kohl
Eb Zeidler with Mary and Robert Montgomery, Jr.
Marianne Castle with Alan and Harriet Miller
Paula and George Michel
Ronald and Debbie Kochman
Debra Mochan with Herbert and Elaine Gimelstob



Bruce Davidson: Subway. Hermes presents photographs from Bruce Davidson's iconic series of the New York Subway
Bob Chavez, Bruce Davidson, and Fab Five Freddy
Sante Dorazio and Bruce Davidson
Last Friday (January 23rd), Hermès presented never-before-seen photographs from Bruce Davidson’s iconic series of the New York City subway, as well as his classic subway images. Davidson’s first major work in color, the Subway photos include images of all types (and we know there's no shortage there) of New Yorkers photographed in the trains and on the station platforms of the New York City subway system. The Hermès exhibition coincides with the centennial of the New York City subway and the upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary of Davidson’s seminal work.
Bruce Davidson and Marissa Tomei
The exhibition at Hermès is on the fourth floor at 691 Madison Avenue and is open to the public from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Monday through Saturdays (Thursdays 10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.) and runs through February 28th. So hop on the subway and make your way over, if not to view Davidson’s startling work, then to shop dahhling!

 Back to Mr. Davidson. He began to photograph the New York City subway in the spring of 1980. He spent the next five years taking the photos, which were published in his much-acclaimed 1986 book, Subway.

Nearly twenty-three years after he started the Subway project, St. Ann’s Press is publishing a new edition of this classic. In his introduction to the new edition, Fred Braithwaite (aka Fab 5 Freddy) says, “Bruce Davidson is a photographer with a documentarian’s heart and a cinematographer’s eye, Caravaggio-like at times, the way he plays with light and the effects of chiaroscuro. Trains move, stop, and go, so to capture many of these moments he had only seconds to freeze time with his shutter. A shadow across a face; a view from a window as three kids peer out; the Coney Island Wonder Wheel; a man staring back through graffiti stained glass; strange, multiethnic hands gripping the pole for balance as the train speeds to the next stop.” The new edition includes the previously unseen photographs included in this exhibition at Hermès.
Amy Fine Collins
Bruce Davidson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962 to photograph the Civil Rights Movement, his work on which has become an essential documentation. This work includes images of an early Malcolm X rally in Harlem, steel workers in Chicago, Ku Klux Klan cross burnings, migrant farm camps in South Carolina and protest marches and demonstrations. In 1963, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City presented his work in a one-man show that included these historic images.

"New York City is the ‘World's Second Home’ and I commend Hermès for honoring the transportation system of this great city with this exhibit. I try to take the subway at least once every single day," said Mayor Bloomberg. "As a matter of fact, I pretty much take the subway every day from midtown to downtown because that for me is the logical way to get around the city." And the mayor ain't lying.


The Hermès exhibition will coincide with the centennial of the New York City subway system. The city’s first subway left City Hall station on the afternoon of Thursday, October 27, 1904, with Mayor George B. McClellan at the controls. Other celebrations of the subway centennial will take place throughout 2004.
Fab Five Freddy and Richie Rich
Maximilian Weiner, Landon Slane, and Vanessa Von Bismarck
Suzanne Eason and Rufus Albemarle

Photographs by Jimi Celeste/PMc




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