From shooting fruit in Toronto to miles of ribbon in Chicago to fiber-optic trees in New York, here are the best ideas, themes, and trends from benefits held across North America this spring.
In April, Starlight Children’s Foundation Canada held its 23rd annual gala inside the ballroom at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The event, which featured the theme of “Fly Me to the Moon,” was decorated with starry decor and included activities such as a flavored oxygen bar, an outer space-theme photo booth, and a silent auction.
Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation hosted its fourth annual Blue Diamond Gala at Dodger Stadium. The evening event, which raised more than $2.2 million, featured a performance by John Legend and was emceed by Arsenio Hall and George Lopez. International Event Company handled the design and production of the gala, which showcased sponsors on large mirrored spheres that hung above the bar area.
The Washington Ballet hosted its annual spring gala, "Raising the Barre," in Washington in May. The event’s table decor featured a chartreuse and black or gold and black color scheme, which mimicked that of the gala’s invitations. This was the first year the event was held at the Anthem at the Wharf.
Earlier this month, the Apollo Theater celebrated its 13th annual spring gala, which raised more than $2 million for its artistic and community programming initiatives. The event’s after-party was held in a tent designed by event planner David Stark and featured a black-and-white dance floor and video wall.
In March, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County hosted its 12th annual gala, titled "A Celebration of Leadership." The evening featured a cocktail reception, dinner by Le Basque, and a supper club-styled concert.
The foundation’s annual Curve Ball, which took place on the field at Rogers Centre in Toronto this month, featured baseball player-inspired centerpieces created by participants in the Jays Care’s Home Run Scholars program, an after-school program that runs in 24 Toronto community housing sites across the city. Once again, Candice & Alison designed the event, which is the foundation's largest fund-raiser.
The Victorian garden theme of the Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s Gala 2018, which was held earlier this month and produced by MDR Creative, featured lush floral arrangements around the company’s complex on Navy Pier. The event raised $1.6 million for the organization’s classroom and community initiatives.
The Public Art Fund hosted its spring benefit in April at Metropolitan West in New York, honoring the artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei. The ribbon-adorned space, which was created by 360 Design Events, included table settings with clock face placements designed by Los Angeles-based artist Amanda Ross-Ho.
Earlier this month, more than 1,200 guests attended the Hospital for Sick Children's annual Scrubs in the City benefit, which featured a “Roman Holiday” theme, with living statues, aerialists, vintage bicycles, hanging florals, and a Vespa photo station. The event, which was held at the Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, raised $820,000.
The Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum’s 20th annual Butterfly Ball, held in May, raised more than $2.3 million in support of the museum’s science education initiatives. The event decor by the Flower Firm included cobalt blue linens and a stage backdrop with giant cut-out butterflies; the three-course dinner was provided by Calihan Catering.
At the annual benefit, which took place in May, guests first enjoyed cocktails on the High Line at the Diller-Von Furstenberg Sundeck and in the Chelsea Market Passage before heading to dinner at two separate locations: Highline Stages and 60 Tenth Ave. in New York. Van Wyck & Van Wyck handled design for both venues. The Highline Stages space featured two columns reimagined to look like dogwood trees with flickering candlelight. The 60 Tenth Ave. venue boasted the “Tree of Life” (pictured), a column that was transformed into a tree dripping with fiber optics that changed colors.
David Beahm Experiences, in collaboration with decor chair Robin Bell, handled the design of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ 21st annual Bergh Ball, which took place in April at New York’s Plaza Hotel. The event’s theme, “Diamond in the Ruff,” was apparent in the table centerpieces, which included structural representations of dogs with sparkly collars.
Held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington in March, the Leukemia Ball, which was designed by Hargrove, featured the event theme of “Illuminate: Shining the Light on Progress.” This idea was translated through the use of light throughout the design, including the stage and stage chandelier. The event raised $3 million.
The 20th anniversary edition of Power Ball, the annual fund-raiser for the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, which was held in May at the museum, featured a risqué circus theme with rides and stalls, including an onsite tattoo parlor and a fruit shooting range.
In May, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Mission Creek Gala, which was designed by Gillian Valentine, highlighted four distinct habitats: the Santa Barbara channel, the coastal wetlands, the oak woodlands, and the California wildflowers on Figueroa Mountain. For example, the coastal habitat dining setup featured small tide pools filled with starfish, shells, and other ocean-inspired elements.
For the American Cancer Society’s 12th annual Discovery Ball, which took place in April at the Swissȏtel Chicago and featured the theme of “Impact From Every Angle,” HMR Designs extended miles of ribbons from 125 points on the ceiling. As guests moved around the room, the angles intersected to create dynamic visuals.
In May, more than 600 guests gathered in the New York art institution’s Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden for the dinner—a first for the annual fund-raiser—to honor philanthropist Agnes Gund. The tented dining space featured sections of round and rectangular dining tables that were decorated in four springtime shades—sunshine yellow, robin’s egg blue, rich teal, and cherry blossom pink, with linens, seat cushions, glassware, and floral arrangements to match. Greenery swags hung from the clear plastic tent’s trusses, and faux grass carpeting lined the space.
Nonprofit homeless youth resource center My Friend’s Place hosted its 30th-anniversary gala in April at the Hollywood Palladium. Each of the six awards presented was a sculpted piece of art handmade by one of the organization’s youth artists.
The Robin Hood Foundation celebrated its 30th anniversary at its annual benefit in May at the Jacob K. Javits Center with a theme of the “Lights of New York." David Stark Design and Production evoked cityscape imagery throughout the space, including layers of Times Square-style signs—printed, constructed, and digital—that communicated the foundation's message.
For the California Science Center’s annual Discovery Ball in Los Angeles in March, the museum’s event services department took inspiration from the new exhibit, “King Tut: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh,” and transformed the museum’s Samuel Oschin Pavilion into King Tut’s royal tomb. Video mapping from Bart Kresa Design masked the space shuttle Endeavour, turning it into the dining room’s focal point.
The crowning jewel of the Met Gala, which took place in May, was the 30-foot-high floriated centerpiece created by gala designer Raul Avila. The structure was inspired by a jeweled tiara, "the most striking component of the Pope's ensemble," said Avila, that once belonged to Pope Pius IX. This year’s event was inspired by the New York museum’s new exhibition, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”
