The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum hosted its annual fundraising event, titled the "Spirit Benefit," on May 1 at the historic Gardner Museum and the nearby Pozen Center at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. John Singer Sargent's painting "El Jaleo" served as the inspiration for the evening, which celebrated the Gardner Museum's rich legacy of programs with Spanish music, flamenco dancers, and red, black and white decor reminiscent of the spirit and energy in this painting.
The event began with cocktails around the museum's historic courtyard garden -- before the co-chairs and a troupe of young flamenco dancers led guests on a promenade from the museum, through Evens Way Park and past the construction of the Gardner's new wing, to the Pozen Center for a feature performance by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.
The event raised $700,000 to support the programming at the Gardner in five cornerstone areas: historic art and scholarship; contemporary art and artists; education and community; music; and landscape. Art dealer and gallery owner Kate Chertavian, of Kate Chertavian Fine Art, emceed the evening's auction, raising more than $160,000 in donations during a seated dinner catered by The Catered Affair.
The event also marked the launch of a $180 million capital and endowment campaign to support construction of a new wing at the Gardner. Designed by architect Renzo Piano to be a work of art itself and a respectful complement to the historic museum, the new wing will enable the Gardner to restore historic gallery areas while providing new spaces to continue Isabella Stewart Gardner's legacy of arts patronage and programming for future generations.
The 200 guests included event co-chairs Katherine Chapman and Thomas Stemberg, RoAnn Costin and Jim Bailey, and Gloria White-Hammond and the Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond, in addition to Gardner Museum President Barbara Hostetter and her husband, Amos Hostetter, museum Director Anne Hawley and her husband Urs Gauchat, and Gardner curators Alan Chong, Pieranna Cavalchini, and Margaret Burchenal. Others in attendance included "Wicked" author Gregory Maguire of Concord, fashion designers Sara Campbell and Paoloa Quadretti; Superintendent of Boston Public Schools Carol Johnson; businessmena and women Josh Bekenstein (founder and managing director of Bain Capital Inc.) and his wife, Anita, Abigail Johnson (president of Fidelity Management and Research), Robert Pozen (chairman of MFS Investment Management); Harvard professors Benjamin Friedman and Paul Marshall; state Rep. Byron Rushing and his wife, Gardner Trustee Frieda Garcia; flutist Renee Krimsier; co-chairs of the Gardner Museum's new Young Patrons group Jessica Gifford and James Bailey; and featured performer mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and her husband Robert Montgomery, chief of Transplant Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center; and other notable guests from Boston and surrounding communities.
