Art Is the Star at Gala Event for Redesigned Norton Simon

Kicking off a week of celebration, Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum held a black-tie gala Saturday night, giving the celebrity-filled crowd a glimpse of its redesigned galleries and new sculpture garden.

It was a big night for architect Frank O. Gehry, a former trustee of the 25-year-old institution who designed the $5-million project--pro bono--and was honored at the event. “All I was trying to do was to make Norton’s collection look better” he said. “It was like unraveling a sweater--once I started, I couldn’t stop.”

The renovation is a longtime dream of Jennifer Jones Simon, Simon’s widow and CEO of the institution. “Her line is that Norton provided the jewels and she’s providing the setting,” said Sara Campbell, the museum’s director of art.

Who Was There: Tom Brokaw, Candice Bergen, Carrie Fisher, Lauren Bacall, Helena Bonham Carter, Eli Broad, Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon, Sidney Sheinbaum, Diane Keaton, Jacqueline Bisset, Kirk Douglas, Angie Dickinson, Sally Kellerman, William Shatner, LACMA president Andrea Rich, and sculptor Robert Graham. Warren Beatty was a no-show, focused more on New Hampshire than Pasadena, perhaps.

The Scene: Guests munched hors d’oeuvres around the imposing Thai Buddha in the entrance hall before wandering through the preeminent private art collection in the West. Adding to the ambience: a surreal cloud (formed by vapors from a Minuteman missile) suspended over the breathtaking lily pond designed by California landscape artist Nancy Goslee Power. The crowd later dined on filet of beef, cutting loose to the tunes of a swing band before chocolate truffle cake and tarte tatin were served.

The Buzz: “Elegant,” “inviting” and “understated” were the operative words used to describe the new heightened ceilings, soft tones and intimate spaces. “It’s amazing that Gehry can design something as dramatic as Disney Hall and [the Guggenheim Museum in] Bilbao and turn around and create something this subtle in which the art, not the architecture, is the star,” said LACMA’S Rich.

The Payoff: Many suggested that the high-profile face lift will nudge parochial Westsiders east of La Brea and raise the artistic standing of the city. “People are starting to think of L.A. as a cultural stop--if not a center,” said Bergen, a Simon trustee. “When they go to the Getty for its building, they’ll come here to see the art. This museum has always been underappreciated by Pasadena. That doesn’t matter anymore.”