NEW YORK, NY — A great party celebrating great art! Benefête 2017 to benefit the Neuberger Museum of Art will be an amazing event this year. Bruce Willis, one of America’s best known actors; legendary jazz artists drummer Steve Jordan and guitarist Danny Kortchmar will join forces in a high-octane blues ensemble — Dognip — to set a spirited tone at Benefête, the museum’s largest fundraising event of the year. The event also will honor community leaders Marilyn and Hugh Price of New Rochelle, NY and the Romare Bearden Foundation. Special remarks will be given by Alvin Clayton, well-known artist and restauranteur, and Danny Simmons, Jr., abstract expressionist painter.
Benefete 2017 will take place at the Museum, located on the Purchase College campus, 735 Anderson Hill Road, from 7 pm to 10 pm, and features molecular cocktails, a silent auction, dinner, entertainment, and the presentations. Guests are encouraged to dress in festive attire. The event co-chairs are Bonnie Klugman and O. Anthony Maddalena. The entertainment is chaired by Paul Zukowsky (Pound Ridge), and the auction co-chairs are: Ellen Chassin, Debbie Heidecorn, Elizabeth Pugatch, Cecile Rothschild. Auction items will be available to preview online at neuberger.org beginning October 23. All proceeds from the evening will benefit the acclaimed education and exhibition programs at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY.
Marilyn Price served for many years on the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art Board, and is a longtime member and former president of the Westchester County Chapter of The Links, one of the nation’s largest volunteer service organizations comprised of African-American professional women. She was for over thirty years a senior operations associate with MDRC. Hugh Price served on the board of the Jacob Burns Film Center, and belongs to the Westchester Clubmen, an organization of African-American professional men. From 1994 to 2003, he was president of the National Urban League, and before that was senior vice president at WNET/Thirteen. He is the author of five books, the most recent being This African- American Life.
The Romare Bearden Foundation was established in 1990 as a nonprofit organization by the artist’s estate to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of Romare Bearden (1911-1988), an American artist of African-American heritage, who is widely acknowledged as one of the most talented and original visual artists of the twentieth century. On view at the Neuberger, now through December 22, 2017, is Romare Bearden: Abstraction, an landmark exhibition that provides the first substantive and scholarly examination of the artist’s work from the 1950s to the early 1960s.
Tickets begin at $400 and sponsorship packages are available. For further information, please email RuthSchwartzandCo@rcspr.com or call the Benefête office at 212-463-0684.
The Neuberger Museum of Art opened on the campus of Purchase College, SUNY in 1974, with a core collection donated by Roy R. Neuberger, one of the greatest private collectors, philanthropists and arts advocates of the twentieth century. Today, the Neuberger is more active and vibrant than ever. The museum’s permanent collection contains more than 7,000 works of African, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and its critically acclaimed exhibitions and a wealth of educational tours, lectures, and inter-active programs engage the entire community. The museum is a center of teaching and learning for all stages of life.
In 2016, the museum opened a public space, Neuberger Museum of Art SPACE I 42, in midtown Manhattan. It is located at 33 West 42nd Street, where ongoing exhibitions are featured.
The Museum is located at 735 Anderson Hill Road in Purchase, N.Y. (Westchester)
914-251-6100. The Neuberger Museum of Art SPACE | 42 is located on the ground floor of 33 West 42nd Street, New York, N.Y. www.neuberger.org