The Frick Collection hosted its annual Autumn Dinner, a special evening celebrating the institution and its enduring legacy. The black-tie event—held again this year at the Metropolitan Club—raised nearly $1.35 million in support of the many important activities of the museum and Frick Art Reference Library, including conservation projects, education programs, and special exhibitions.
This year’s event honored Elizabeth M. Eveillard, a longtime champion of the Frick’s mission and a dedicated supporter of the arts. Betty has been an integral member of the Frick community for more than twenty years. In 2015, she joined the Board of Trustees and has served as its Chair since 2017. Her leadership has been invaluable during the institution’s current renovation and enhancement project—to which she lent early support—and its temporary move to Frick Madison.
Along with her husband, Jean-Marie (a Frick Trustee from 2009 to 2015), she has also underwritten numerous special exhibitions and contributed to the endowment for the position of Chief Conservator. In 2021, the Eveillards promised a gift to the Frick of twenty-six works from their collection—the largest and most significant gift of works on paper in the museum’s history— which was showcased last year in an acclaimed exhibition at Frick Madison.
Betty has been dedicated to philanthropy ever since retiring from a thirty-year career on Wall Street. Beyond the Frick, she was a longtime trustee of Smith College, serving as chair from 2012 to 2016. She also enjoyed nine years on the board of The Glimmerglass Festival, including five as chair, and a decade as a trustee of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. She has lent her expertise to the visiting committees of the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Morgan Library & Museum and the Department of Paper Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. She currently sits on the boards of Master Drawings and the Friends of the Domaine de Chantilly and serves as a managing director of the Metropolitan Opera. In 2020, Betty was awarded the prestigious medal of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.
At the dinner, Ian Wardropper, the Frick’s Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director, welcomed guests and gave Betty a warm introduction, thanking her for her longstanding dedication to the Frick.
Betty then spoke of her great admiration for the Frick’s timeless collection and of the power of great works of art to lift and transform the soul. She also reflected on her time thus far as Chair of the Frick’s Board of Trustees and highlighted a number of important milestones, including the collection’s acclaimed temporary presentation at Frick Madison and her involvement in the historic loan, in 2022, of Rembrandt’s beloved Polish Rider to several museums in Poland. She closed her remarks with an excited look to the year ahead, inviting guests to enjoy the final months of Frick Madison and to rediscover the museum’s masterpieces when the Frick’s renovated Fifth Avenue buildings reopen late next year. Finally, Ian presented Betty with a commemorative silver tray from Christofle.
Benefit Chairs: Margot and Jerry Bogert, First Eagle Investments, Marina Kellen French, Karen Z. Gray-Krehbiel and John H. Krehbiel Jr., Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Jane Moss and Ravenel Curry, Christine and Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Lisa and Bernard Selz.
Young Fellows Benefit Chair: Matthew Christopher Pietras. Benefactors: Barbara and Brad Evans and The Eveillard Family.
Patrons: Beyer Blinder Belle, Architects and Planners, LLP, Ayesha Bulchandani, Agnes Gund, Jane and Michael Horvitz, The Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder Foundation, Katharine Rayner, Dr. and Mrs. James S. Reibel, Sciame Construction, Selldorf Architects, and Mr. and Mrs. David M. Tobey.
Benefit Committee: Candace and Rick Beinecke, Sofia A. Blanchard, Burberry, Christie’s, Kathleen Feldstein, Barbara G. Fleischman, Mrs. Henry Clay Frick II, Mary Griffin and Colleen Shields, Barbara A. Reuter and William J. Williams Jr., Mrs. Madeleine Richard, Deborah and Chuck Royce, Dr. Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher, Dominique Senequier, Constantine P. Sidamon-Eristoff and Yanrui “Rae” Jiao, Ms. Denise Littlefield Sobel, Sabina and Harlan Stone, Douglas Dockery Thomas, Barbara Tober, and Londa Weisman.
