Culminating more than a week’s worth of events to show off its new and improved home, the Museum of Modern Art organized a massive preview gala that welcomed more than 6,000 guests. An assortment of big league donors, trustees, artists, celebrities, and museum staff made for a lively throng. Ambling through the galleries were designer Isaac Mizrahi, businessman and museum chairman Ronald Lauder, and in-the-news-newsman Tom Brokaw, as well as a smattering of hipsters and moneyed Upper East Siders. (Previous events included a black-tie dinner marking the museum’s 75th anniversary, a staff preview party, a huge press preview, and an enormous party for artists and gallery owners.)
MoMA director of special programming and events Nicholas Apps planned the event to give guests a preview of the new building days before the public opening. The party took over all floors of the museum. And while it sported little in the way of decor, the highlight of the event was a glimpse at the expansive architecture of Yoshio Taniguchi and the reinstalled collection.
One part of the party where decor was prevalent was the fifth-floor space of the Terrace 5 restaurant, where Avi Adler and David Stark created a fun, logo-laden red lounge for Target. Lux Lighting projected gobos of different sizes of bull’s-eyes and positioned three free-standing steel bull’s-eyes—two flanking the bar and another one in the center of the room. The metal targets were studded with blinking magnetic LEDs, which were so popular with guests that many people plucked them off to use as jewelry or to embellish clothing.
An army of Glorious Food’s servers did a good job keeping guests fed, with constant waves of caterwaiters penetrating the crowd with offerings that included gigantic coconut shrimp, miniature hamburgers, mini chicken burritos, and vegetarian spring rolls. And with such a large guest list, the abundance of bars was a welcome sight. Bowls of cocktail nuts on the bars were a nice touch, and in homage of sponsor Target, the “Targetini”—a mixture of white wine and sparkling water with lime—were served in blinking logoed martini glasses.
With thousands on hand, some crowding was inevitable, but didn’t prove to be a major hassle, due mainly to the building’s giant spaces. The museum’s large second-floor atrium space was a popular roost for many guests and remained packed, as did Target’s small lounge. The atrium had two large bars and a DJ station that featured a rotation of talent, including former Jane’s Addiction front man Perry Farrell and experimental composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. In the sixth floor’s vast contemporary art galleries, British rock band the Zutons performed, with a view of Ellsworth Kelly’s huge “Sculpture for a Large Wall” as a backdrop. Outdoors, in the restored Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, a big crowd of guests (and not only the smokers) packed the space, which offers cool views of the new building.
—Mark Mavrigian
MoMA director of special programming and events Nicholas Apps planned the event to give guests a preview of the new building days before the public opening. The party took over all floors of the museum. And while it sported little in the way of decor, the highlight of the event was a glimpse at the expansive architecture of Yoshio Taniguchi and the reinstalled collection.
One part of the party where decor was prevalent was the fifth-floor space of the Terrace 5 restaurant, where Avi Adler and David Stark created a fun, logo-laden red lounge for Target. Lux Lighting projected gobos of different sizes of bull’s-eyes and positioned three free-standing steel bull’s-eyes—two flanking the bar and another one in the center of the room. The metal targets were studded with blinking magnetic LEDs, which were so popular with guests that many people plucked them off to use as jewelry or to embellish clothing.
An army of Glorious Food’s servers did a good job keeping guests fed, with constant waves of caterwaiters penetrating the crowd with offerings that included gigantic coconut shrimp, miniature hamburgers, mini chicken burritos, and vegetarian spring rolls. And with such a large guest list, the abundance of bars was a welcome sight. Bowls of cocktail nuts on the bars were a nice touch, and in homage of sponsor Target, the “Targetini”—a mixture of white wine and sparkling water with lime—were served in blinking logoed martini glasses.
With thousands on hand, some crowding was inevitable, but didn’t prove to be a major hassle, due mainly to the building’s giant spaces. The museum’s large second-floor atrium space was a popular roost for many guests and remained packed, as did Target’s small lounge. The atrium had two large bars and a DJ station that featured a rotation of talent, including former Jane’s Addiction front man Perry Farrell and experimental composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. In the sixth floor’s vast contemporary art galleries, British rock band the Zutons performed, with a view of Ellsworth Kelly’s huge “Sculpture for a Large Wall” as a backdrop. Outdoors, in the restored Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, a big crowd of guests (and not only the smokers) packed the space, which offers cool views of the new building.
—Mark Mavrigian
For the biggest party leading up to Museum of Modern Art’s official opening, thousands packed the massive new building. The huge atrium space—home to Claude Monet’s “Water Lillies” and Barnett Newman’s enormous “Broken Obelisk”—had two large bars and a large DJ station.
The restored Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden was a popular spot to take in the view of the new building’s exterior. Target’s red lounge space glowed from the fifth floor.
Avi Adler and David Stark transformed the Terrace 5 café into a logo-laden lounge for Target. The bull’s-eye was everywhere—gobos projected it in different sizes, and three large steel bull’s-eyes were covered with magnetized blinking LEDs.
British rock band the Zutons performed in the museum’s enormous sixth-floor contemporary art space.
