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When Mother Nature Crashed the Parrish Midsummer Gala

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The Parrish Art Museum’s Midsummer Gala: In the Clouds could not have been more on theme. After a Saturday of dramatic thunderstorms and a flood watch, 700 guests—many in haute couture—arrived at the museum, and what could have been a washout was an absolute blowout. The gala raised more than $1.7 million in support of the museum’s exhibitions, education initiatives and inclusive programming; honorees included philanthropist Ellen Katz and artists Enoc Perez, Joan Semmel, Hiroshi Sugimoto and, in memoriam, Pat Steir.

The Parrish is a long, sleek, single-story building on 14 acres of meadow in Water Mill. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, it was inspired by the potato-field barns local artists once turned into sun-drenched studios. Its landscape, at once wild and manicured, is home to iconic sculptures like Roy Lichtenstein’s Tokyo Brushstroke I and II, which one can walk around and recognize from Montauk Highway.

The Parrish’s executive director, Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, who helped choose the honorees and the theme of the night, said that this year’s gala stemmed from Sanford Biggers’ current exhibition. Biggers also helped create the gala’s visuals and the idea of a night in the clouds.

For Biggers, clouds are a recurring motif. Standing under cartoon-like clouds made from aluminum and acrylic, Unsui (Cloud Forest), he told Observer, “During the pandemic, I spent most of my time out here, and one of my ways of staying calm and connected to the universe was looking at the clouds for hours at a time.” Wearing a necklace with two dangling silver cloud charms, he added, “When I was asked to do something at the Parrish, I thought it would be a great way of considering the landscape and the cloudscape here.” He hoped people would walk away from the evening feeling a sense of “inspiration, calm and wonder.”

Guests in colorful attire wandered the galleries while trustees gathered for a photo in front of a classic Ellsworth Kelly. The evening’s co-chair and trustee, Charlotte Pilaro, in a sequined, pale-yellow dress, said she’d been worried about the weather, but that the rain had given them an opportunity to show the art. “We’re just thrilled that everyone is inside and appreciating the art, because that doesn’t always happen… We’re an art museum, right?”

Pilaro was joined by her co-chair, Yanina Fuertes, who said much of the night’s fundraising would support ACCESS PARRISH and the museum’s educational and community programs. “Kids as young as four and five come to the museum to appreciate and create art.”

That mission was reflected in two Eastport-South Manor students, who beamed as they described their six-month internship at the Parrish. “We were immersed in Long Island art and the local artists, so it was really nice to connect with where we’re from, as artists, because we’re both very interested in the arts,” said Julia Castone, a senior. “It’s very difficult for high schoolers to get involved with things like this because you have to have connections. The Parrish making itself so available is such an incredible opportunity.” She added that the museum had reached out to their art teacher. “We’re public-school students, so you don’t usually get opportunities like that.”

The Dixons played live music against a backdrop of fluffy clouds while Parsons dancers, dressed in white, leapt across the room as guests crowded around, Casa Dragones-sponsored Coconut Cloud Margaritas in hand.

Near one of the bars, bookended by cascading blue-violet hydrangeas, actor John Leguizamo and gallerist and designer Lisa Perry seemed like old friends. When asked how they knew each other, they laughed. “We don’t. We met five minutes ago.”

Leguizamo, who has a place in Amagansett, spoke about the museum’s director as a force. “To have Mónica, a Latina, head of the whole museum, to me is everything,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful hug. It just makes me feel seen and included.” Art, he added, “is always at the forefront of resistance, of speaking truth to power. Protecting artists and giving them space to do what they do and express themselves is very important—it’s where we should be putting our money and our time.”

Among distinguished artists were Sanford Biggers, Sheree Hovsepian, Gwen O’Neil, Enoc Perez, Ugo Rondinone, Will Ryman and Nina Yankowitz. Other notables in attendance included trustee Astrid Hill, Chris and Christina Cuomo, restaurateurs Gabby Karan and Gianpaolo De Felice, Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni, New York State Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright, philanthropists Karen and Dennis Mehiel, H.H. Sheikha Alia Al-Maktoum and fashion designer Jonathan Simkhai.

Attendees next moved onto the Mildred C. Brinn Terrace, where a marigold gown ballooned in a warm gust of wind. Tables were adorned with powder-blue and white blooms by Arthur Golabek Flowers, and guests dined on an appetizer of sesame-crusted shrimp. After Katz received the Parrish Philanthropist Award, a short video played in which Katz recalled that, at 14, her grandmother took her to the brand-new Guggenheim, where she was awestruck by Philip Guston’s paintings. She described art as a lifelong refuge and source of beauty, saying that collecting and donating works to museums brought her great happiness because they could be shared with others. “This is the legacy that artists make for us to relish and leave for multiple generations to follow.”

A dinner of corn-nut-crusted steelhead trout gave way to a lively paddle raise, followed by coconut key lime cake for dessert.

Then the sky opened with a downpour—the kind that soaks to the bone—and bare-shouldered women wrapped themselves in baby-blue cloud towels, designed by Biggers and gifted by sponsor Capital One. The weather was unruly and electric—and, after days of thick smoky air from the Canadian wildfires, refreshing.

For a moment, the rain stopped, just before the evening’s final act: the Afterglow, a dance party where guests let down their hair to DJ Jason Fioto. It wasn’t just any night. Mother Nature had given her sartorial wink.