| EVENT REPORT 02.20.09 2:00 PM |
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To Launch BAM's Transatlantic Partnership—and The Winter's Tale—Decor Runs Hot and Cold
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The Brooklyn Academy of Music isn't letting the sluggish economy dampen its plans for expansion, both physically and creatively. Its partnership with London's Old Vic Theater, called the Bridge Project, saw the second premiere of its inaugural year Tuesday night with the first outing of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. About 500 guests, including Kevin Spacey, Ethan Hawke, and Patricia Clarkson, showed up for a dinner, performance, and dessert reception on the stage of BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House.
Producers at BAM, including director of special events Glenn Stiskal, wanted to play with the tension between hot and cold—a metaphor explored in the play—in their decor for the dining area, so they decided to cut the stage in half, with help from Bella Meyer of Fleurs Bella. One side saw hanging icicles and dead branches covered in frosty blue lights, while the other half featured lush, flowering trees and wooden deck chairs under the soft glow of orange and yellow.
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Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Winter's Tale, The Bridge Project |
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| VENUE NEWS 01.22.09 10:00 AM |
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Despite Weak Economy, BAM Launches $300 Million Expansion Plan
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 | A space inside Brooklyn Academy of Music's proposed Richard B. Fisher building
Rendering: Courtesy of the Brooklyn Academy of Music |
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Fiscally speaking, it may not be the easiest time to launch a large construction project. But yesterday the Brooklyn Academy of Music officially announced that it has started a $300 million fund-raising effort to expand its footprint with new buildings and also launch new artistic initiatives. Dubbed the BAM Next Stage Campaign, the institution's plan aims to support five years worth of programming and cement the area's standing as a growing cultural district.
"The campaign is bold and ambitious, just like BAM. Despite the current economic environment, we have already raised more than half of the campaign's $300 million goal," said campaign chair and board vice chair Adam E. Max in a press release.
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Brooklyn Academy of Music |
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| EVENT REPORT 11.13.08 2:55 PM |
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BAM's Next Wave Gala Echoes Modern Dance With Flowers
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 | BAM's petal-covered Next Wave gala
Photo: Keith Sirchio for BizBash |
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Last night, in a tribute to one of the avant-garde shows in its Next Wave Festival this year, the Brooklyn Academy of Music filled Skylight with romantic lighting and hundreds of flowers and petals for a 650-person dinner. In addition to being the featured performance of the Next Wave gala, “Amjad,” a contemporary dance piece by Montreal-based La La La Human Steps that pays homage to classic ballets “Swan Lake” and “Sleeping Beauty,” also served as the inspiration for the evening’s decor.
The event, which included cocktails and the premiere of “Amjad” at BAM’s Fort Greene campus, was produced by the organization’s director of special events, Glenn Stiskal.
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Brooklyn Academy of Music, Altria Group, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Pine Ridge Winery |
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| MY FAVORITE VENDORS 09.04.08 12:00 PM |
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BAM Sets the Stage With Fleurs Bella
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 | Glenn Stiskal
Photo: Shevett Studios |
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Glenn Stiskal joined the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February, and now oversees 40 to 50 events per year as its director of special events. Before BAM, Stiskal planned opening-night parties for New York City Center and Second Stage Theater.
Flowers: “Bella Meyer and her team at Fleurs Bella have a flair for drama and passion like no other in their decor and arrangements. It would be difficult to write the genius that is Bella. They are our exclusive florist and have worked on the Paul Simon spring gala, for which they crafted organic centerpieces tied into the African theme. Bella took inspiration from the dry deserts and lush jungles to make the individual tables reflect the continent. On another ocassion, she conjured up a prom for grownups, making corsages for 1,000 guests—and she only has a staff of 10. Bella is our most invaluable asset.”
Music: "DJ Idlemind creates the perfect atmospheric background music for our gala dinners. This year, he DJed the spring gala that celebrated Paul Simon's 'Under African Skies.' He played a compilation of music from 'The Rhythm of the Saints' and 'Graceland,' with some Latin and African influences. He found just the right mood and vibe—without spinning any Paul Simon. He also always manages to avoid crossing into pop territory."
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Brooklyn Academy of Music |
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| EVENT REPORT 06.02.08 10:57 AM |
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Prom Props Fill BAM for Sundance Series Opening
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 | BAM's prom party setup
Photo: Alison Whittington for BizBash |
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With paper crowns, plastic tiaras, balloons, and corsages, the guests coming out of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Thursday night looked more like they had been to prom than to a film screening. And that was the idea behind the kick-off party for the Sundance Institute at BAM, a 10-day-long line up of indie films, shorts, performances, and art from the Park City, Utah, nonprofit's January festival. BAM's special events department created the motif to tie into the opening night screening of American Teen, a documentary following the lives of high school seniors in Warsaw, Indiana.
The screening packed the Howard Gilman Opera House with a lively audience, and afterwards many (BAM estimated that about 1,200 guests attended) flooded the lobby and the upstairs Lepercq Space for chips and dip, cookies, beer, and some dancing. On-hand to introduce the series were BAM president Karen Brooks Hopkins, Sundance Institute executive director Ken Brecher, American Teen director Nanette Burstein, Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz, and this year's chairs of the BAM Cinema Club, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard.
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Sundance Institute, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Citi, The New York Times, Brooklyn Brewery, Saaga 1763 Vodka |
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| EVENT REPORT 02.14.08 4:56 PM |
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BAM Hoists Trees—and Guests—on Stage for Macbeth Benefit
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 | BAM's woodland decor
Photo: Francine Daveta for BizBash |
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Rupert Goold’s Chichester Theater Festival production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth provided visual inspiration for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's benefit at its Howard Gilman Opera House on Tuesday night. Set in an industrial chamber that BAM describes as “equally military hospital ward, kitchen, torture chamber, and abattoir,” the modernistic production also rings with what the art center calls “the echoes of Stalinist terror.” Like many of BAM's galas, the event echoed the location and the overriding themes from the play—in this case, military and murder—with creative floral details and moody lighting.
Divided into four parts, the gala included a cocktail party in the entryway of the opera house, a dinner served on the stage of the opera house, a performance of Macbeth (with Patrick Stewart in the title role) in the Harvey Theater, and a dessert reception with the cast, also on the stage of the opera house.
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Brooklyn Academy of Music |
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| INFLUENCES 12.14.07 9:32 AM |
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Explore Gaudí's Imaginative Spaces
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 | Gaudí's surreal spires of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
Photo: Courtesy of BAM Rose Cinemas |
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Next Wednesday, the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Rose Cinemas will screen the documentary Antonio Gaudí, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara. The film explores the inventive buildings and environments designed by the famous Catalan architect, who combined Gothic, Middle Eastern, and traditional styles in his work. The filmmaker's camera moves through Gaudí's spaces, like the church of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, set to an expressive score by Toru Takemitsu. BAM will present four showings of this 1984 release, which broke box office records nationwide. (It's one of the most successful art-house films ever produced.) —Mark Mavrigian
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Brooklyn Academy of Music |
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| EVENT REPORT 11.12.07 2:41 PM |
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BAM's Next Wave Gala Makes Last-Minute Move
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 | BAM's Shaker-inspired dinner decor.
Photo: Alison Whittington for BizBash |
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The Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave festival has a lot of fans. So many, in fact, that Wednesday night's 25th anniversary gala had to relocate to a bigger space to accommodate supporters' response.
The dinner portion of the evening, following a performance at BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House of "Borrowed Light" from Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen, was originally scheduled to take place at the Brooklyn warehouse venue known as 470 Vanderbilt. When attendance numbers reached 850, a change of plan was in order.
With just a week and a half before the event, planners relocated it to another space named for its location—but this time in Manhattan: 7 World Trade Center, where BAM held its benefit related to Edward Scissorhands last spring. "It was the first venue to come to mind," said Edward McKeaney, BAM's special events manager. "You have to have a very large space to hold a kitchen and an audience of that size." (You also need transportation to get people there, so BAM hired buses to transport guests to the dinner.)
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Brooklyn Academy of Music |
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