Spring themes are nothing new, but this one had a twist. The Brooklyn Academy of Music treated its spring benefit guests like ants—nothing personal, we're sure—by surrounding the dining room with 18-foot-tall projections of green blades of grass, producing an effect akin to dining in the dirt.Held on Stage Four at Steiner Studios at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the benefit was the first such event at the studios, which opened in late 2004. Mark Musters of XA, the Experiential Agency created the event's look, choosing square tables in eight-table-long rows over rounds to replicate rural feasting tables. Grey linen tablecloths, flats of grass, sky-blue muscari, moss balls, simple
votive candles, and a milk bottle filled with different grasses decorated the tables.
The festivities began with a cocktail reception at the Lepercq Space in BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House. Great Performances' appetizers included pear and Stilton on chive pancakes, miniature cheeseburgers and crab cakes, phyllo-wrapped.phparagus with prosciutto and parmesan, and mushroom strudel. Arrangements of white and yellow tulips, grasses, and green orchids decorated the reception, and 8th Street Lighting and Steiner's in-house technicians projected blades of grass onto the Lepercq's window shades.
BAM and XA deliberately established the springlike feel to provide a "little taste of what would be at the dinner," said Jennifer Stark, BAM's director of special events. The Mark Morris Dance Group performed after cocktails inside the opera house, after which the 600 guests rode buses from the opera house to Stage Four, the 16,500-square-foot movie studio where The Producers was filmed.
Abigail Kirsch catered the dinner, which included an heirloom tomato tarte tartin; miso-glazed black cod with shiitake mushrooms, edamame, and purple potatoes; and chocolate pyramid with fudge sauce and berries. The spring theme even carried through to the gift bags: green plastic bags with a yellow floral pattern containing everything from a Salvor T-shirt and flower notecards from Snow & Graham to Brooklyn-baked Robbie Dawg organic dog biscuits and sachets of Numi organic tea.
—Jane Levere
Posted 03.29.06
Photo: Elena Olivo (walls, food)
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votive candles, and a milk bottle filled with different grasses decorated the tables.
The festivities began with a cocktail reception at the Lepercq Space in BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House. Great Performances' appetizers included pear and Stilton on chive pancakes, miniature cheeseburgers and crab cakes, phyllo-wrapped.phparagus with prosciutto and parmesan, and mushroom strudel. Arrangements of white and yellow tulips, grasses, and green orchids decorated the reception, and 8th Street Lighting and Steiner's in-house technicians projected blades of grass onto the Lepercq's window shades.
BAM and XA deliberately established the springlike feel to provide a "little taste of what would be at the dinner," said Jennifer Stark, BAM's director of special events. The Mark Morris Dance Group performed after cocktails inside the opera house, after which the 600 guests rode buses from the opera house to Stage Four, the 16,500-square-foot movie studio where The Producers was filmed.
Abigail Kirsch catered the dinner, which included an heirloom tomato tarte tartin; miso-glazed black cod with shiitake mushrooms, edamame, and purple potatoes; and chocolate pyramid with fudge sauce and berries. The spring theme even carried through to the gift bags: green plastic bags with a yellow floral pattern containing everything from a Salvor T-shirt and flower notecards from Snow & Graham to Brooklyn-baked Robbie Dawg organic dog biscuits and sachets of Numi organic tea.
—Jane Levere
Posted 03.29.06
Photo: Elena Olivo (walls, food)
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Gucci Sponsors's BAM's All-Brown Hedda Fete
All-Star Team Plans BAM Benefit
Planners of the Year: Fund-Raising With Flair