Lincoln Center has a new reason to celebrate: The organization's nearly two-year, $159 million renovation of Alice Tully Hall is finally complete. And in any other time, a grand event would most certainly mark the occasion. But of course, a struggling economy and tightening budgets make these times very different, and the center's gala for nearly 700 guests on Monday night reflected that. As a nod to the hall's original benefactor, Alice Tully, the event—dubbed "The Leading Ladies of New York"—honored 12 female patrons of the performing arts campus.
"One of the things that was very important to [honoree] Laurie Tisch was that the event be very sustainable, we repurpose as much as we could, and that we be mindful of the economic climate that we're in," said Lincoln Center's senior director of special events, Mary Callaghan. (Plans begun in more flush times included dancing and a band, two elements that were eliminated after the market's dive.)
"Everyone is looking for the right way to entertain in the current economy," said designer and producer Matthew David Hopkins. "You want it to feel appropriate. This is more intimate and celebratory, but not overtly grand." Hopkins went through several more elaborate design concepts before arriving at the final result. (The gala marked the debut of Hopkins' reconfigured company, now called 360 Design Events Ltd.)
While decor in Alice Tully Hall—where a post-cocktail hour and pre-dinner performance took place—was kept to a minimum, Hopkins created a transporting environment in the dinner space, the Tent at Damrosch Park.
To create a sense of intimacy, Hopkins draped 5,400 feet of sustainable cotton from the tent's 26-foot ceiling, a solution that not only made the dinner space feel smaller, but also eliminated the need to fill the cavernous room overhead and offset the dark floor of the tent. "It was a way to solve a lot of things at one time," Hopkins said. Additional decor elements included accent lighting in green and pink, tabletop ice sculptures in the form of jewels (a nod to sponsor Graff Diamonds), and floral arrangements that incorporated white roses, hydrangea, and pink orchids. Large canvases displaying projections of graphics used on the invitations—cropped images of women in dresses—lined the perimeter of the room.
Environmental sustainability served as another guiding principle of the event, in part as an acknowledgment of Tisch's commitment to social responsibility. Green components of the event included the donation of the fabric to nonprofit Materials for the Arts and centerpieces to the Flowerpower Foundation, the contracting of local vendors, and the use of municipal water to create ice sculptures.
