Last night, the Whitney Museum of American Art feted its new Renzo Piano-designed location in New York’s Meatpacking District with an inaugural dinner and first look gala. The black tie event welcomed 400 of the museum’s top donors and permanent collection artists including Paula Cooper, Richard Armstrong, Thelma Golden, Jasper Johns, Paul Chan, Cindy Sherman, and Nicole Eisenman, among many others.
Guests were treated to dinner while mayor Michael Bloomberg, Whitney Museum Director Adam Weinberg, and Whitney Chief Curator Donna De Salvo gave remarks. The evening also featured a surprise performance by Rufus Wainwright, and a preview of “America Is Hard to See,” the first exhibition in the museum’s new home. A sprawling romp through the treasures of the permanent collection, the show features over 600 works by 400 artists spanning the 1900s to the present. Guests left full on food, wine, and spirits, with specialized gift bags in tow that contained the exhibition handbook and a Renzo Piano monograph.
The new location opens May 1.
