The pampered existence of an Indian maharaja served as the theme for the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery’s annual fund-raising dinner on Thursday. The event celebrated the opening of the gallery's latest exhibition, “Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur,” with rich fabrics and traditional music.
Staged in several Sackler galleries and the adjoining Freer Gallery of Art, the benefit attracted 200 patrons. With tickets starting at $1,000, proceeds support the current exhibition and continuing programs of the galleries. Air India, Boeing, and Tata Group were among the sponsors.
Produced by a gala committee and the gallery’s event specialist, Elizabeth Damore, the benefit took its cue from the exhibition’s 18th-century art depicting palace grandeur. The private collection is on loan from the Mehrangarh Museum Trust and the dinner’s guest of honor, His Highness Gaj Singh II, the Maharaja of Marwar-Jodhpur.
The royal mood began just inside the Sackler entrance, where Simon Temprell of A-Vista Events created a billowing canopy of burnt orange, fuchsia, and gold silk fabrics that surrounded the bar. Tall arrangements of green calla lilies and fuchsia Mokara orchids flanked the canopy, creating a waterfall effect—"all designed to give movement,” said florist Michael Lanni of Volanni. Rose and amber lights bathed the austere architecture, warming the space and lending intimacy. Before their performance, members of the Rupayan musical group tied special-occasion turbans onto the heads of the men and placed shimmering bindis on the foreheads of the women.
From the cocktail and reception room on the ground level of the Sackler, guests descended a flight of 40 granite stairs to the exhibition gallery, where the maharaja briefly gave remarks. Auction items were on view, and A-Vista created a comfy, lounge-style seating group with low-slung sofas and ottomans in burnt orange and red.
Museum staff carefully researched protocol for the proper way to introduce and seat their guest of honor and the royal family. The menu from Design Cuisine was Indian-inspired, beef-free, and sensitive to the fact that more than 25 percent of the guests were vegetarians. For the first course, vegetarians dined on grilled-eggplant kabobs similar in look to the other guests' scallop kabobs. An intermittent rain diverted the dessert buffet from the Freer atrium into an adjoining corridor.
