MoMA's Party in the Garden: Contemporary Art and Hip Hop

 The night started with cocktails at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden

The Museum of Modern Art’s Party in the Garden is always a wonderful event that marks the beginning of the summer in New York City and gathers wildly successful artists, benefactors, celebrities, designers and the glitterati of our wonderful city, which never ceases to amaze me because of its creativity, passion and, well, because of all its extraordinary people whether they art world insiders or not. Being the MoMA my favorite museum in the world, I could not have missed the party, and I’m so glad I didn’t.

My husband and I arriving at the party

Since 1973, the MoMA has been hosting this soirée which is well known for raising multimillionaire figures to keep backing the museum general fund; needless to say the amount of money that goes into operating and making the MoMA not only a wonderful space open for the public enjoyment but more importantly, a world class institution always at the forefront of the modern and contemporary world, is quite astronomical.


                                        Before it went dark we all moved inside the MoMA for dinner.

This year’s honorees included four amazing and inspirational women, all of whom are art lovers, big ticket collectors and members of MoMa’s Board of Trustees: fellow Venezuelan, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, who has worked tirelessly to push Latin American artists to be part of any major contemporary museum collection around the globe; Mimi Haas, who has dedicated a lifetime to advocate for public service and the arts; Jill Kraus, who is also a trustee of the Carnegie Mellon University and a former design executive for Avon and Swarovsky and Sharon Percy Rockefeller an amazing art advocate who also happens to be a phenomenal businesswoman and is the president and CEO of WETA, Washington, D.C.’s flagship public television and radio stations, since 1989. So the four ladies and their honorary co-chairs Jerry I. Speyer and Marie-Josée Kravis started the night by having cocktails in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden accompanied by other A-Listers such as Michael Bloomberg, David Rockefeller, Larry Gagosian, Marina Abramovic, James Rosenquist, Michael Douglas, Henry Kravis, Terence Koh, Anh Duong and Jossie Natori among many others.

Kanye and Jay Z onstage.  Can't imagine a more better ending for this night!

We all then proceeded to have dinner inside the museum where the lobby had been properly transformed in a chic, shiny environment contrasting glass, mirror and red flowers where beautifully designed acrylic chairs surrounding mirrored tables were configured in a way that ensured that there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. The dinner was followed by a performance by Kanye West who got quite an audience and put together a great concert (although a bit moody, but we know Kanye!). Funnily enough, Kanye has described himself as an art school dropout and this year, one of the most respected and powerful art institutions in the world, invited him to be the entertainer of their annual gala. The highlight of the night came when Kanye invited Jay Z to sing with him onstage. The crowds went really wild. Both sang H.A.M together and Jay Z went on alone to finish the beautiful, although a bit chilly, night, with Empire State of Mind. And that is how all of us attendees left the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, feeling the beat of New York mixing hip hop and the best of the contemporary art world scene, a perfect reflection of the eclecticism of our city.