Benefits Always Try the Same Thing: Being Different
Guests at the annual Art of Dining have always gotten a mouthful--course after course of gourmet fare cooked up by some of the world’s most celebrated chefs.
But after seven years, the benefit for the Newport Harbor Art Museum was ready for something new, says Twyla Reed Martin, chairwoman of the May 21 gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach.
This year’s black-tie event--already a sellout, with more than 30 tables going for $5,000 and $10,000 a crack--will salute California sculptor Robert Graham and feature a display of art from the museum’s permanent collection.
The bonus: Graham will attend with his wife, actress Anjelica Huston.
“This year, we’re combining the culinary arts with the visual arts,” Martin said during a recent interview in her Normandy-style Laguna Beach home.
“We’ve always had wonderful food and auction items; we wanted more.”
Even the most successful charity events can get tired. The challenge for nonprofit organizations is to keep fund-raisers on a fresh track, offer a surprise or two, to keep the ticket sales coming.
Honoring Graham was a natural. Called the “Bernini of L.A.” by Vanity Fair magazine, the Mexican-born sculptor’s acclaimed civic works include the Duke Ellington Memorial for the northeast entrance of Manhattan’s Central Park and the Olympic Gateway, erected for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Some of his most sought-after small sculptures include naturalistic bronzes of the nude female body. (Martin and her husband, Chuck Martin, a venture capitalist, keep Graham’s lithe “Gabrielle” next to a leafy plant in their sun-dappled foyer.)
Pulling artwork from the museum’s collection, hanging it on the hotel’s ballroom walls and lighting it, gallery-style, is Martin and her committee’s way of offering Art of Dining guests a new ambience.
“Our concern was that there are benefits in that ballroom all the time,” she said. “Those of us who have been around Newport Beach for a while know the color of the carpet, the color of the tablecloths. We’ve seen it!
“So it was really important that the decor be tasteful and elegant and have a new look.”
During a recent luncheon at Patina restaurant in Los Angeles for the gala committee (Patina owner Joaquim Splichal has lined up the chefs for Art of Dining), one woman noted that Martin and her committee “will probably be one of the most beautifully dressed in the county.”
The women plan to wear full-length gowns to the event, where the popular attire is cocktail-length.
Martin will wear a floor-length Oscar de la Renta. “But I have my new tuxedo dress, a re-creation of an original Jacques Fath, on standby in case the Oscar doesn’t make it in time,” she said.
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If keeping it fresh and new after seven years is a challenge for the Newport Harbor Art Museum, imagine how 16 years must sound to supporters of South Coast Repertory.
The theater’s annual season-kickoff gala--traditionally the launch of Orange County’s social season--is scheduled for Sept. 23 at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel.
What could be new after 16 galas?
“The theme,” said gala chairwoman Marilyn Lynch of Corona del Mar. “Our theme, ‘Let’s Misbehave,’ is wonderful. We’re really excited about it.”
The SCR gala is always a sellout, Lynch says, because a new gala treatment is conceived every year.
“This year, the committee wanted a theme that was lighthearted. When times are bad out there, the entertainment needs to be lighter, more fun. We’re moving back to the ‘30s. And we’re going to be a little naughty.”
Naughty? “Women are talking about cutting in , asking other men to dance,” Lynch said, laughing. “And we’re going to serve beef! Plus, there are a few surprises we’re not talking about.”
The ballroom at the Westin, including tablecloths and centerpieces, will be decorated in a white-on-white motif, Lynch said. And caricatures of gala underwriters, a la Sardi’s restaurant in New York, will grace the walls.
Entertainment will feature the music of Cole Porter, with an al fresco reception served up in the courtyard next to Diva restaurant. Men are being encouraged to wear tails, women romantic, long dance dresses.
“People love our event because they know it’s going to be completely different every year,” Lynch said. “Last year, honoring our Spanish playwright’s program, we had an Aztec theme. Other years we’ve featured street entertainment--juggling, magic acts. We are always changing. We have a reputation for surprises.”
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For the Orange County Performing Arts Center, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year with a series of events, the gala challenge is always about “trying to offer both a unique entertainment event and a party that is different from anything guests have ever attended,” said Greg Patterson, center spokesman.
Tickets are still available for the May 17 “Celebrating Great Performances” gala--co-sponsored by the center, the Orange County Philharmonic Society and Opera Pacific--which will feature an appearance by the Met Orchestra in Segerstrom Hall. James Levine will conduct. Dame Margaret Price will be the soprano soloist.
Afterward, gala-goers will join Levine and Price at a supper in the Center Club, where the cuisine theme will be “East Coast Meets the West Coast,” said chairwoman Barbara Glabman. Up for sampling: everything from New York-style pizza and cheesecake to fresh California fish.
Big plans are on the drawing board for next year’s anniversary splash, Patterson says. Henry Segerstrom, the center’s vice chairman for endowment, recently invited center chairman Thomas Nielsen to oversee the festivities.
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Perhaps Tiffany Vice President Jo Qualls--chairwoman of Pacific Symphony’s June 10 gala at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine--best sums up the need for variety in fund-raising.
“People in Orange County are looking for intrigue, entertainment, something unusual,” she said. “Most of the people who attend these functions attend them regularly. So, in order for it to be a compelling attraction, a gala has to generate a reputation for offering something different, be it the design of the ballroom, a surprise with the menu or the entertainment.”
