The economic landscape has moved everyone to make adjustments, and Tuesday night's Party in the Garden benefit at the Museum of Modern Art showed that even stalwart institutions like MoMA aren't immune to the current financial climate. The museum cut both its expenses for the annual event and the price of tickets for the dinner and after-party. (Organizers reduced the ticket cost for the after-party from the previous year's rate of $250 to $100.)
"We felt [$250] was cost-prohibitive, and we wanted to include more people," said Nicholas Apps, MoMA's director of special programming and events. The strategy worked: The museum sold more than 1,000 tickets to the after-party, as compared to 550 in 2008.
In addition to making the event more affordable—and reducing the budget by an estimated 40 percent—the museum elected to alter the tone of the event. "We wanted to make it more casual. So we came up with the idea of making it more comfortable, more laid-back," Apps said.
Various elements of the evening reflected this decision: a dress code downgraded from black-tie to cocktail attire, a family-style dinner of paella, serving two courses instead of three, the absence of tablecloths, and comfort food appetizers from Glorious Food that included pigs in a blanket, mini grilled cheese sandwiches, and shrimp cakes.
Decor from SPEC Entertainment employed the repetition of furniture elements in clear Lucite and white leather to create an appropriately modern effect for the dinner portion of the evening. Additional elements included simple orchid floral arrangements, muted silver vases and candle holders, and warm pink accent lighting on the perimeter of the dining areas.
To assemble the massive collection of identical furnishings, SPEC enlisted the services of three different vendors—Props for Today, Taylor Creative, and Signature Event Rentals—and even commissioned the construction of a few tables for the event when they still came up short. SPEC principal Jonathan Reed noted that the quantity of pieces needed for the event also provided the opportunity to negotiate budget-friendly discounts with vendors.
"We went to our vendors and said, 'Tell us what you can do without harming the feel of the event. What can you do for less money?'" Apps said. He also acknowledged that, yes, it was more challenging to sell $100,000 tables this year. "The days of lobster and caviar are over for now," he said. But he also noted the A-list names in attendance (Rockefeller, Lauder), and that they seemed game for more casual and communal eating.
The dollar figure for the benefit's final haul was not yet available.
