Once upon a 7 PM-ish dreary, more than 600 costumed guests made their way cold, but cheery, to the Central Park Conservancy's annual Halloween benefit ball.
Coordinated by Samantha Burwick, Tia Chapman and Paola Zanzo, the event's A Spellbinding Night theme was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven," and featured eerie decor by Ron Wendt Designs that evoked a spooky autumn night. Faux ravens were perched throughout the tented dining room: in the tall, mossy trees and on the edges of steaming cauldron centerpieces that decorated some tables. Warm gold and orange lights shined through leaf-stenciled gobos to give the room the feeling a nighttime party under a canopy of trees. Tables were covered with orange and black satin tablecloths with sheer black net overlays.
The costumes, of course, were also a sight: Sigourney Weaver happily posed for cameras in her witch getup. Bebe Neuwirth was a black cat. They were joined by Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, Hannibal Lecter, Austin Powers and an assortment of other costumed gala-goers. Entertainers from Carrie Robbins Designage added to the atmosphere with costumed actors and performers who danced, spun plates and walked on stilts among the guests.
—Suzanne Ito
Read about last year's Halloween Ball...
Read about the Central Park Conservancy's Frederick Law Olmsted awards...
Coordinated by Samantha Burwick, Tia Chapman and Paola Zanzo, the event's A Spellbinding Night theme was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven," and featured eerie decor by Ron Wendt Designs that evoked a spooky autumn night. Faux ravens were perched throughout the tented dining room: in the tall, mossy trees and on the edges of steaming cauldron centerpieces that decorated some tables. Warm gold and orange lights shined through leaf-stenciled gobos to give the room the feeling a nighttime party under a canopy of trees. Tables were covered with orange and black satin tablecloths with sheer black net overlays.
The costumes, of course, were also a sight: Sigourney Weaver happily posed for cameras in her witch getup. Bebe Neuwirth was a black cat. They were joined by Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, Hannibal Lecter, Austin Powers and an assortment of other costumed gala-goers. Entertainers from Carrie Robbins Designage added to the atmosphere with costumed actors and performers who danced, spun plates and walked on stilts among the guests.
—Suzanne Ito
Read about last year's Halloween Ball...
Read about the Central Park Conservancy's Frederick Law Olmsted awards...