Balls, galas, luncheons, book parties ... all on NYSD ...
Zorianna L. Altomaro and Marc Ecko
Julie Macklowe
Artworks for Auction
The 5th Annual RxArt Ball was held at the Splashlight Studios on West 35th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. The RxArt Ball isn’t a reall ball, in the strictest sense; it’s a cocktail party.
A cocktail party and silent auction of works by leading contemporary artists such as John Baldessari, Tom Oteterness, William Sofield, Donald Sultan and Terry Richardson.
Furthermore the art is selected by museum directors and curators. The sales benefit hospitals.
The Benefit Committee included Daria Werbowy, Kevin Kline, Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo, Lisa Anastos, David Wasserman, Cynthia Rowley, and Beth Rudin DeWoody.
RxArt Ball was created by RxArt which is a non-for-profit established six years ago by former gallery owner Diane Brown, dedicated to promoting healing through exposure to original fine art in patient, procedure and examination rooms of healthcare facilities.
They believe healing is optimally accomplished by integrating spiritual well-being with the finest medical care. RxArt’s objective is to “humanize sterile hospital settings” and improve morale by providing creative surroundings which help relieve the stress and anxiety of patience, families and staff.
With those committee member at the helm, the RxArt Ball was a big hit with several hundred attending.
Martin Marks, Horacio Silva, and Dr. Lisa Airan
Alice Judelson, Paul Judelson, Lisa Anastos, Will Cotton, and Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo
Ricky Clifton, Carlton DeWoody, and Brian Sultzman
Diana Kashan and Paul Judelson
Liz Hopfan and Glenn O'Brien
Vicky Zeych, Roberta Freymann, and Marci Rosenblum
L. to r.: Lisa Anastos, Will Cotton, Alice Judelson, and Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo; Donald Sultan.
Ricky Ernesto Caivano, Charlotte Kid, and Dustin Yellin
Glenn O'Brien, Justen Ladda, Gene Pressman, and Christine Salata
L. to r.: Patrick Li and Glenn O'Brien, and Justen Ladda; Duncan Hannah and Diane Brown.
The Thursday before last there was a reception in Michael Connors’ newly renovated 4200 square foot gallery for his latest book French Island Elegance.
The French islands are: Martinque, Guadeloupe, Saint Barths and Saint Martin. And when you look at the book you want to go there and maybe STAY. Because it’s so beautiful.
More than 200 attended including the book’s photographer Bruce Buck, Briton Bryant (former Senator from St. Croix, US Virgins), Corice Arman, Lynn Nesbit, Pamela Taylor, Carole Holmes McCarthy, Prosper Assouline, the French publisher, Ulla van Zeller, Maruice DuBois, Jerome Neutres, Nicholas Dungan, Christopher Gallagher, Bruno Giuliani, Eric Mimmel, Editor-in-Chief of Harry N. Abrams (the book’s publisher) and his wife Caroline Miller (former Editor-in-Chief of New York.
Guests quaffed the exquisite (so they say) “Ti Punch” and Planteur rum cocktails as well as the French Caribbean inspired hors d’oeuvres, all accompanied by traditional steel band music. Everything but the sun, the white sands and aqua waters. That you’ll have to travel for. Or buy the book. That’s a start.
L. to r.: Pam Taylor, Michael Connors, and Carole Holmes McCarthy; Christopher Gallagher and Emily Dike.
Corice Arman, Blanche Frankel, and Jerome Neutres
Michael Connors and Brit Bryant
Gladys Montgomery, Bruce Buck, and Britt-Marie Graham
Michael Pierce, Rachel Hayes-Gayle, and Stuart Gale
Lisa Butler and Michael Connors
Michael Connors' gallery
L. to r.: Musician Shay; R. Nicole Devilaine, Bruno Giuliani, and Blanche Frankel.
Michael Connors' Gallery
Emma Archer, Blanche Frankel, Nicholas Dungan, and Jerome Neutres
Bruce and Charla Buck
L. to r.: Michael Connors signing a copy of his book; French Island Elegance.
Earlier this month on a Tuesday at the St. Regis Roof, the Horticultural Society of New York held its 13th annual Fall Luncheon and honored Carleton Varney with the HSNY Award for Excellence. Mr. Varney is the president of Dorothy Draper & Co. Inc, the oldest established interior design firm in the United States. It was named after its founder who had a long career that was so well-publicized (before the days of television and internet) that she was actually a household name in America – a rare occurrence even in these media saturated times. She ran her own design firm from the 1920s through the 1960s and was honored by the Museum of the City of New York this year in a very successful retrospective exhibition of her work.
Carleton Varney’s latest book, In The Pink-Dorothy Draper -America’s Most Fabulous Decorator, was published concurrently with the museum exhibition, and is filled with countless photographs of Draper’s work taken from the archives of Dorothy Draper & Company. For design connoisseurs and designers themselves, it’s a trip.
The funds raised from the luncheon event support The Horticultural Society of New York’s community outreach programs such as: Apple Seed, a science program offered in schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods; GreenBranches, a program of installing and maintaining professionally designed gardens at branch libraries in neighborhoods with few green space; GreenHouse / GreenTeam program on and after incarceration at Rikers Island, which prepares inmates and ex-offenders for entry into the job market, by training them in horticulture and landscaping
Co-chairs of the luncheon were CeCe Black, Margaret M. Carnwath, Karen K. Clark, Lucy Day, Millicent M. Johnsen, Anne Shearman-Betts, Suzette de Marigny Smith, Sheila Stephenson, Elizabeth F. Stribling and Jessica Tcherepnine. Vice-Chairman were R. Ellen Avellino, Sharen Benenson, Dominique Buaron, Wendy N. Carduner, Sharon Casdin, Charlotte M. Frieze, April Riddle Gow, Ted Hartley & Dina Merrill, May Brawley Hill, Ursula Lowerre, Charlotte Mathey and Mary S. Phipps. Junior Chairs wereVirginia Apple, T. Paige Betz, Susan Parker Fore, Leslie Hull, Cynthia Ketchum, Stephanie Loeffler, Pia Murphy and Mary Van Pelt.
Brigitte Pettie and HSMY President Tony Smith
Mark Gilbertson and Diana Quasha
HSNY GreenTeam Intern Kamelita
The St. Regis Roof
Paige Betz, Alison Minton, and Elizabeth Belfer
Dina Pendleton, CeCe Black, Pia Lindstrom, and Tricia Walsh Smith
Corneilia Bregman and Frances Hayward
Sheila Stephenson
Stella Sichel
Zibby Tozer, Kathy Irvin, and Chris Giftos
Tony Smith and Millicent Johnsen
CeCe Black and Carleton Varney book signing
Suzette Smith and Pia Lindstrom
Deborah Royce and Christina Vanderlip
Ulla Parker, Charlotte Frieze, and Mary Van Pelt
Susan Magee, Marge Ternes, and Linda Hoffman
Carleton Varney, Frances Schultz, and Mark Gilbertson
Nancy Paduano and Warrie Price
Odile de Schietere Longchampt, Elizabeth Stribling, CeCe Black, and Victoria Wyman
Martha Glass and Betty Sherrill
Josie Patton, Mary Libby, Margie Furniss, and Emilia Saint-Amand
More than a 1000 attended Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project “Hulaween” benefit, filling the grand ballroom of the Waldorf=Astoria on Halloween night to its gilded rafters. Midler and Willie Nelson sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” as a duet. Stevie Nicks making a rare public appearance entertained with a 45 minute set of her hits. Joy Behar acted as auctioneer and she and Ms. Midler “sold” trees to the audience, ranging in price from $100 for saplings to $2500 for mature flowering trees that will be planted along Harlem River Drive. Midler also announced that it is her dream to plant ONE MILLION trees in New York City (so far NYRP has planted more than 100,000 trees). The generous audience at the Waldorf will help the NYRP on its way. The evening raised $1.2 million.
Each year the NYRP gives the “Wind Beneath My Wings” Leadership Award to those who have seen a need in the worldwide community and who have used their time, talent and resources to fulfill that need. In 1985 Willie Nelson, along with John Mellencamp and Neil Young established Farm Aid embarking on the fight to save family farms. Nelson said: “The fight to save family farms isn’t just about farmers.It’s about making sure that there is a safe and healthy food supply for all of us. It’s about jobs, from Main Street to Wall Street. It’s about a better America.” It’s also about the food supply being accessible to everyone.
Event co-chairs were Patricia and Ray Chambers, Glenn Close and David Shaw, Peggy and Millard Drexler, Grace Hightower and Robert De Niro, Cynthia and Dan Lufkin, Bunny Lambert Mellon, Andre Leon Talley and Carmen and John Thain.
NYRP reclaims, restores, and develops under-resourced open spaces in New York City’s five boroughs. As “the conservancy of forgotten polaces,” NYRP rescues public parks and community gardens that are most threated by the challenges facing underserved communities. Since 1995 NYRP has steadily “cleaned and greened” some of New York City’s most blighted public areas by removing more than 850,000 tons of garbage and debris from project sites. It has created Swindler Cove, a beautiful new park, out of an illegal dump on the Harlem River,; saved and revitalized more than 100 Community gardens; taught hundreds of at-risk children about the environment, built the first boathouse on the Harlem River in over 100 years; and transformed acres of parkland from scary to merry.
Among the glittering crowd enjoy the Midler revelries were Anne Bass and Julian Lethridge, Grace Hightower and Robert De Niron, Cindy Sherman, Holland Taylor, Brice Marden, Donald and Catie Marron, Rachel Roy and Damon Dash, Ellen and Dr. Richard Levine, Daryl and Steve Roth, Princess Astrid of Lichtenstein, Patricia Duff, Christy Ferer, Senator Bob Kerrey, Harvey Fierstein, Annie (Mrs. Willie) Nelson, Martha Stewart, Frederic Fekkai, Brook and Dan Neidich, Marcia Diamond, Martin von Haselberg.
