The stars gathered at the Whitney Museum of American Art on Tuesday night for the institution’s annual spring gala. Actresses, reality stars, conceptual artists, fashion designers, stylists, curators and R&B icons came together to celebrate the 95-year-old museum.
During cocktails in Kenneth C. Griffin Hall, the actress Claire Danes chatted up a gaggle of men with a drink in hand.
“I love the Whitney,” Ms. Danes said, clad in a red dress by Max Mara, a sponsor for the evening.
On the opposite side of the hall, the philanthropists Kathy and Rick Hilton, and their daughter Nicky Rothschild, collected fizzy drinks from a bar.
“They’re here visiting from L.A., so it’s a little family outing,” Ms. Rothschild said.
Nearby, the actresses Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan held court, fresh off their run on the third season of “The White Lotus.”
“When you come at night and get to go around and look at art and then come out into the Meatpacking District,” Ms. Bibb said, “it’s very sexy.”
In front of the large, freightlike elevators, Ubah Hassan, a star of the “The Real Housewives of New York City,” spoke with the stylist June Ambrose. Ms. Hassan, who wore a light blue Pamella Roland dress, said it was her first gala at the Whitney.
“I’m not very familiar with it,” Ms. Hassan said of the museum. “Whenever I’m getting invited, I’m like ‘I gotta go!’”
The night’s honorees included Amy Sherald, the contemporary artist whose first solo show at the Whitney, “American Sublime,” opened on April 9. The artist is probably best known for her portrait of the former first lady Michelle Obama. But reviewing the show for The New York Times, the critic Deborah Solomon described Ms. Sherald “as a painter of one-frame short stories, of fictions that bestow recognition on people you would not recognize.”
The contemporary artist Glenn Ligon, who had a retrospective at the Whitney in 2011, said he felt it was urgent for Ms. Sherald’s work to be shown at the museum.
“It’s important that a museum like the Whitney is showing portraits of people that look like her at this moment when there’s such, you know, demonization of D.E.I., artists of color and Black representation,” Mr. Ligon said. “It’s important that the Whitney has made this commitment.”
After cocktails, guests were shuffled to dinner on the seventh floor of the museum.
The large elevator doors opened to rows of tables in front of a gold, curtain-like back drop. The artist Jeff Koons, who presided over a table at the side of the stage, said Ms. Sherald’s work is about sharing her personal growth with the world. Ms. Sherald’s career opened up after she painted Ms. Obama, and her trajectory into museum shows followed.
“Amy has transcended herself,” Mr. Koons said. “She’s transcended her own life, and she’s shared that with the community and that’s what we feel when we look at her work.”
Richard DeMartini, a member of Whitney’s board since 2007, was also recognized alongside Barbara Haskell, a curator at the museum for about 50 years, who was celebrated for her longevity and her eye.
“The museum has changed so much, but in some ways, it hasn’t changed at all,” Ms. Haskell said. “I mean, visually, it’s got bigger, more important but it’s the fundamental values that first attracted me and have kept me here for 50 years.”
The event raised about $6 million and midway through dinner, Judy Hart Angelo, a Whitney trustee, pledged another $1 million to support the Museum’s free admissions program, which provides free entry to visitors under 25. The initiative started in December and has resulted in 400,000 free visits. It has also helped bring the number of visitors, which dropped because of the pandemic, back to about a million a year, according to Scott Rothkopf, the museum’s director.
The Hiltons sat together close to the stage. Nearby, Tom Sachs, the New York-based artist, chatted with a friend.
“The legacy of The Whitney is important,” Mr. Sachs said. “When I first moved to New York, I always felt welcomed by the Whitney and its programs to help make art accessible are essential to the city. It’s a place that embraces artists and art, going public equally and there’s nothing more important than that for creating a sense of community in the arts institution in the city.”
After dinner was served — filet mignon, of course — and the honorees gave speeches onstage, there was a final surprise.
From the right side of the room, the remaining members of TLC, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, appeared and the opening horns of their 1994 hit single, “Creep” began to play.
Two-thirds of the room seemed a bit confused as to who was performing and why. But at the foot of the stage, the artists, including Ms. Sherald and Jordan Casteel, sang along with the group’s three-song medley, word for word.
Sandra E. Garcia is a Times reporter covering style and culture.
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