Ann Nitze, Ben Bradlee & Dame Jillian Sackler

Photos by: Gregory Partanio/ manhattan society

Alec & Hilaria Bladwin

George Rogers, Pari Bradlee and Quinn Bradlee

Valentine & Yaz Hernandez

On Thursday, August 8, 2013, Sally Quinn & Ben Bradlee and Quinn & Pari Bradlee hosted a cocktail party for the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery Gala Chairs Dame Jillian Sackler, DBE and Hilaria and Alec Baldwin at Grey Gardens in East Hampton, New York. 

The cocktail party was held to celebrate The Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery’s upcoming Gala, which will take place in Washington D.C. on October 17^th. Some Enlightened Evening Gala will benefit The Sackler exhibitionYoga the Art of Transformation which opens on October 19, 2013 and will run until January 26, 2014.

Guests who attended included: Dan Ackroyd, John Alexander and Fiona Waterstreet, Ruth Appelhof, Hilaria and Alec Baldwin, Noreen Buckfire, Quinn and Pari Bradlee, Anla Cheng Kingdon, Jenny Conant, Elfi Eicke, Maximilian Michael Eicke, David and Karen Fleiss, Michael Haverland, Yaz and Valentine Hernandez, Michael Hornsby, Samuel Hornsby, Emily Goldstein and Stan Stokowski, Sharon Hoge, Glenn Horowitz and Tracey Jackson, Fariba and Reza Jahanbani, Michael and Eleanora Kennedy, Anna Kennedy Safir, Marci Klein and Andrew Reyniak, Elizabeth Kircik, Alexandra Loeb, Jenny Landey, Jennifer Maguire, Christopher Mason, Navroop Mitter, Ann Nitze, Josh Oshikopekhai, Jana Pasquel de Shapiro, Andre Pastoria, Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee, Anne Van Rensselaer & Grace Johnson, Christopher Reynolds, George Rogers, Ava Roosevelt and Christopher Twardy, Dame Jillian Sackler DBE, John Seelye, Lynn Sherr, Jeffrey Slonim,  Patty Tang,  Amanda Taylor and Brett Pickett,  Samantha Thompson,  Joan Tobin,  Annie Totah, Amei Wallach and Bill Edwards, Rattazzi Whittle, Sir Ivan Wilzig,Victoria Wyman and Katie Ziglar.

Sally Quinn welcomed 100 guests on the porch overlooking verdant gardens saying “The Sackler Gallery and the Freer are the most exquisite museums in Washington.  My daughter-in-law Pari Bradlee, the best yoga teacher I know, and I are excited to be on the Gala committee to support and promote the yoga show.”  She added, “I hope you will indulge me in sharing the news that last evening my husband Ben Bradlee received a phone call from the White House announcing he is being awarded the American Medal of Freedom.”  The crowd roared congratulations for the 92-year-old Bradlee.

Needless to say, all evening Bradlee was asked by guests about the purchase of The Washington Post by Jeff Bezos.  With a smile he said “I hope and believe it is the right thing for the Post.”

Freer|Sackler Director of External Affairs Katie Ziglar recounted British Museum Director Neil MacGregor’s observation that “we people have but one life to live, but objects and works of art have many lives.”  She continued, “we are bringing over 130 masterpieces of Indian art to Washington for this show, that my colleague Debra Diamond has been working on for 18 years, since her doctoral research in Jodhpur.

Ms. Diamond, lead curator of the Yoga show and the Sackler's curator for South Asia, introduced the exhibition, Yoga: The Art of Transformation, saying, “what we know as power yoga today will be revealed in the exhibition to have a long history.  Before the year 1000 female yogis (yoginis) were know to take the form or fierce goddesses and beautiful women.  One installation in the exhibition will reunited for the first time such monumental stone figures from a 10^th-century Chola yogini temple.” Guests from Washington D.C. to New York to San Francisco all celebrated the countdown to the “Some Enlightenment Evening Gala” with champagne and cocktails provided by Moët Hennessy USA.

“Yoga changed my life,” announced Gala co-chair Hilaria Baldwin, who added “I found it when I had hurt myself as a dancer and now I am a passionate advocate for yoga and a yoga teacher.”

Alec Baldwin talked at length about the sports young men were encouraged to pursue when he was growing up, “football, baseball, basketball, and the message we received to get strong and bulk up.”  He also said, “I wish I had found yoga sooner and had more time in my life to do it,” while making jokes about his yoga prowess.

The Gala Chairs will be Dame Jillian Sackler DBE, Hilaria and Alec Baldwin and Chandrika Tandon. The Gala will be under the distinguished patronage of Her Excellency Nirupama Rao, Ambassador of India to the United States. Tickets for the event start at $1,000 and Tables start at $10,000 (for more information about the Gala see the attached event listings attachment).

The Gala will sure to be a sumptuous affair of exceptional art complemented by fine cuisine, the evening will feature a performance by Grammy-nominated vocalist Chandrika Tandon, followed by TranscenDance, a young patrons’ soiree hosted by the Silk Road Society.

About the Exhibition: “Yoga: The Art of Transformation” opens Oct. 19 at the Sackler Gallery and is the world’s first exhibition on the art of yoga. Temple sculptures, devotional icons and vibrant manuscripts—as well as early-modern photographs, books and films—will reveal yoga’s mysteries and profound meanings over 2,000 years.  

About The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery: The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, located at 1050 Independence Avenue S.W., and the adjacent Freer Gallery of Art, located at 12th Street and Independence Avenue S.W., are on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day (closed Dec. 25), and admission is free. The galleries are located near the Smithsonian Metrorail station on the Blue and Orange lines. For more information about the Sackler Gallery and their exhibitions, programs and other events, the public may visit . www.asia.si.edu

Attached you will find a PDF about the upcoming exhibition  “Yoga: The Art of Transformation” and as mentioned above information about purchasing tickets to the Gala. If you have an event listing area on your website or in your magazine we do hope you will include this upcoming event.