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The
American Federation of Arts
Announces the 2015 Gala &
Cultural Leadership Awards Honoring
Carlos & Rosa de la Cruz, Wade
Guyton, and Arnold Lehman
The American Federation of Arts
(AFA) is pleased to announce the
recipients of the 2015 Gala &
Cultural Leadership Awards. On
Thursday, October 29, 2015, AFA
trustees, supporters, artists,
and art world leaders will join
together to honor renowned art
patrons and collectors Carlos
& Rosa de la Cruz;
contemporary American artist Wade Guyton;
and retiring longtime director
of the Brooklyn Museum Arnold
Lehman.
In recognition of individuals
who have distinguished
themselves through their
significant contributions to the
arts and museum communities, the
awards will be presented by Nancy
Spector, Deputy
Director and Jennifer and David
Stockman Chief Curator of the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Scott
Rothkopf, Deputy
Director for Programs and Nancy
and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator of
the Whitney Museum of American
Art; and Elizabeth
A. Sackler, Board Chair
of the Brooklyn Museum and
President of the Elizabeth A.
Sackler Foundation.
“We are proud to
honor these individuals who
reflect the breadth, diversity,
and scholarship of today’s
exciting art arena and have
played an important role in
expanding the audience for art,”
said AFA Director Pauline
Willis.
Proceeds from the
evening will benefit the
distinguished exhibitions that
are toured to museums
internationally by the American
Federation of Arts.
The 2015 Gala &
Cultural Leadership Awards is
co-chaired by Steph & Jody La
Nasa, NancyJane & Jeffrey Loewy,
Martha MacMillan, and Betsy
Pinover Schiff, who are
committed to supporting the
AFA’s mission. Members of the
Benefit Committee, who provide
crucial support for the event,
include patrons and art world
leaders such as Ruth Appelhof &
Gary Adamek, Jonathan Binstock,
Stephanie & Frederick Clark,
Leslie & Tom Freudenheim, Lee
White Galvis & Sergio Galvis,
Agnes Gund, Ann & Gilbert H.
Kinney, Petzel Gallery, Kimerly
Rorschach, and Martha A. &
Robert S. Rubin. ARTnews is the
media sponsor of this year’s
Gala, and Matthew Robbins Design
will again provide creative
décor at the Metropolitan Club
in New York City. The event will
include a cocktail hour and
three course seated dinner.
Previous AFA
Cultural Leadership Award
honorees have included Marina
Abramović, Sheikh
Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Milton
Esterow, Spencer Finch, Frank
Gehry, Shirin Neshat, Roy
Neuberger, Sarah Sze, Eugene V.
Thaw, Kehinde Wiley, and many
others.
For more
information about the 2015 Gala
& Cultural Leadership Awards
tickets and table sales, contact
Amanda Haber at
ahaber@afaweb.org
or 212.988.7700 x209.
About the
Honorees
Carlos &
Rosa de la Cruz
World-renowned
collectors and philanthropists
Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz have
been making waves in the art
scene for the past 30 years.
Located in Miami’s Design
District, the de la Cruz
Collection was built as a
privately funded museum,
accessible to the public at no
cost. It is a testament to both
their long history of supporting
upcoming and innovative
contemporary artists on both an
international and local level
and their generous philosophy on
accessibility to art for all.
Motivated by their unique vision
and commitment to education and
the arts, the space has served
as a platform to support the
local art scene and its
educational systems. Initiatives
include lectures, artist-led
workshops, and docent-led tours.
Mr. and Mrs. de la Cruz have
also initiated extraordinary
scholarship opportunities for
young artists to learn through
direct experience with
world-class educational
programs, which include
international travel and
classroom work experience in New
York.
Chairperson and
Founder of the Moore Space, an
alternative space that operated
in Miami from 2001–8, Rosa has
long been recognized for
supporting some of the most
experimental projects to Miami.
For over 30 years, she has built
a reputation for being both a
trendsetter and salient figure
in the contemporary art world.
In the fall of 2011, Rosa de la
Cruz served as Juror of the
Marcel Duchamp Prix at the
Centre Pompidou in Paris. In
1988, she was a juror for the
Hugo Boss Prize at the
Guggenheim Museum in New York.
In 1997, Rosa was awarded the
Alexis de Tocqueville Award from
the United Way for community
service and, in 2004, she
received the Red Cross
Chairmen’s Spectrum Award. Rosa
de la Cruz was a member of the
Art in Public Places Board, Key
Biscayne, Florida, and member
and Juror of the Ibis Society of
the University of Miami. Rosa
and Carlos were both the 1998
honorees of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center.
Educated at
Andover and the University of
Pennsylvania, Carlos de la Cruz
is a life-long scholar. Eclectic
by nature, he has broken free of
educational silos while
remaining actively connected to
the academic community. At
Wharton, Carlos created a
fellowship program in Behavioral
Finance for doctoral candidates
and supported the employment of
a neurologist specializing in
fMRIs. Mr. and Mrs. de la Cruz
have also endowed the de la
Cruz/Mentschikoff Chair in Law
and Economics at the University
of Miami, where Carlos studied
law under the deanship of
Professor Soia Mentschikoff. He
has been on several university
boards including those of
Georgetown and Miami, where he
became chairman, recruiting
former Health and Human Services
Secretary Donna Shalala as
President, and led the
transition.
Wade
Guyton
 Wade
Guyton (born 1972, Hammond,
Indiana) has had numerous solo
exhibitions internationally,
including at the Whitney Museum
of American Art, New York; the
Kunsthalle Zurich; the Museum
Ludwig, Cologne; Portikus,
Frankfurt am Main; the Museum
Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle; the
Vienna Secession; and the
Kunstverein in Hamburg. His work
has been included in the
following group exhibitions,
among others: the Venice
Biennale; the Lyon Biennial; the
Torino Triennale; Kunsthaus
Bregenz; Konsthall Malmö; the
Museum of Modern Art, New York;
the Museum of Contemporary Art,
Los Angeles; and the Art
Institute of Chicago. The artist
lives and works in New York.
Arnold
Lehman
 Highly
respected in the national and
international art community,
Arnold Lehman has been an
activist museum director for
over forty years. During that
time, he has been an advocate
and leader of public
accessibility, diversity,
community, innovation, and
freedom of expression in
American museums and other
cultural institutions. Serving
as Director of the Brooklyn
Museum from 1997 to 2015, Mr.
Lehman prioritized both the
individual visitor's experience
and the community's engagement
with the museum through
innovative exhibitions and
re-installations of the
permanent collection; highly
successful public programs that
address the diversity of the
collection and the community;
active support for the
participation of Brooklyn-based
artists; and an ongoing major
capital program that greatly
enhanced the accessibility of
the museum and the preservation
of its vast collections.
Prior to joining
the Brooklyn Museum, Mr. Lehman
was Director of the Baltimore
Museum of Art and Adjunct
Professor of the History of Art
at Johns Hopkins University. He
served as President of the
Association of Art Museum
Directors (AAMD) and as
three-term Chair of the Cultural
Institutions Group (CIG) of New
York City, representing 33 major
cultural organizations. Mr.
Lehman is a Trustee of the
American Federation of Arts and
a member of the Executive
Committee of the Bard Graduate
Center. He served as Co-Chair of
the Arts and Culture Transition
Committees for New York's Mayor
Bill de Blasio as well as for
Brooklyn's Borough President
Eric Adams. He received his
M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale
University and is a specialist
in American twentieth century
and contemporary art. Mr. Lehman
recently received the Wunsch
Award for Excellence in American
art.
Mr. Lehman
currently serves as one of
thirteen international Visiting
Fellows at the Ford Foundation,
advising on key issues of social
justice, creativity, and freedom
of expression, as well as
personally working on developing
a pipeline for the advancement
of museum professionals of
color. In addition, he was
recently elected to the position
of Chair of the Board of Legg
Mason Funds, where he has served
as a director for more than 30
years, and he is Senior Advisor
to the Chairman and CEO of
Phillips.
Upon his recent
retirement, Mr. Lehman was
honored with being appointed the
first Director Emeritus of the
Brooklyn Museum.
What
2015
American Federation of Arts Gala
& Cultural Leadership Awards
When
Thursday,
October 29, 2015 ● 6:30-11 pm
Where
Metropolitan
Club, One East 60th Street,
New York City
Gala
Co-Chairs
Steph & Jody La
Nasa
NancyJane &
Jeffrey Loewy
Martha MacMillan
Betsy Pinover
Schiff
Gala
Benefit Committee
Ruth Appelhof &
Gary Adamek, Elizabeth Belfer,
Jonathan Binstock, Stephanie &
Frederick Clark, Suzanne
Delehanty, Ghislain d’Humières, Alexandra
& David Drucker, Ashleigh
Fernandez, Brian Ferriso, Leslie
& Tom Freudenheim, Miller
Gaffney, Lee White Galvis &
Sergio Galvis, Kathleen J.
Graytok, Agnes Gund, Anthony
Hirschel, Ann & Gilbert H.
Kinney, Melyora
de Koning, Margot &
Robert Linton, Sarah & Alec
Machiels, Merrill & Chris Mahan,
Claire Marmion, Amory and Sean
McAndrew, Clare McKeon, Petzel
Gallery, Madeleine Plonsker, Kimerly
Rorschach, Martha A. & Robert S.
Rubin, Capera Ryan, Victoria
Triplett, and Jennifer Wright
(list in formation as of October
2, 2015)
Sponsors
About the
American Federation of Arts
The American
Federation of Arts is the leader
in traveling exhibitions
internationally. A nonprofit
institution founded in 1909, the
AFA is dedicated to enriching
the public’s experience and
understanding of the visual arts
through organizing and touring
art exhibitions for presentation
in museums around the world,
publishing exhibition catalogues
featuring important scholarly
research, and developing
educational programs. Current
and upcoming AFA exhibitions
include Pastures Green &
Dark Satanic Mills: The British
Passion for Landscape; Indigenous
Beauty: Masterworks of American
Indian Art from the Diker
Collection; Out of the
Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture; When
Modern Was Contemporary:
Selections from the Roy R.
Neuberger Collection; Matisse
Drawings: Curated by Ellsworth
Kelly from the Pierre and Tana
Matisse Foundation Collection; A
Joyful Revelation: The Fauve
Paintings of Georges Braque; Kay
WalkingStick: An American Artist; Art
of the Lega: Meaning and
Metaphor in Central Africa; Ancestral
Modern: Australian Aboriginal
Art from the Kaplan & Levi
Collection; Women
Artists in Paris 1850–1900 (working
title); and Transatlantic
Encounters: Latin American
Artists in Paris between the
Wars, 1918–39. For more
information about the AFA,
visit www.afaweb.org
The exhibition
will be highlighted on Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter via
the hashtag #AFAGala
Photo of Carlos & Rosa de la
Cruz courtesy de la Cruz
Collection Contemporary Art
Space; Photo of Wade Guyton
courtesy Wade Guyton
Studio; Photo of Arnold Lehman
courtesy Brooklyn Museum |