With a gorgeous setting and best-dressed (and often hatted) guests, The Frick garden party is a highlight of Manhattan’s social calendar. Held in late May for the museum’s Fellows, it is one of the last major events before Hamptons season begins.
No one wants to miss it and judging by the number of partygoers this year—725!—no one in the Frick’s circle of friends and benefactors did.
So who attended?
Director Ian Wardropper, Margot Bogert, Ayesha Bulchandani-Mathrani, Barbara G. Fleischman, Emily T. Frick, Elizabeth Kurpis, Lucy Jane Lang, Monika McLennan, Kate Reibel, Juan Sabater, and Melinda Sullivan Irene Roosevelt Aitken, Yan Assoun and Polina Proshkina, Colin B. Bailey and Alan Wintermute, Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah M. Bogert, , Mark Briggs, Rika Burnham, Stephen Bury, Edward Lee Cave, Helen Clay Chace, Tia Chapman, Ron Chernow, Margaret Civetta, David Collens, Joyce Cowin, Mary S. Cronson, Sonali Deraniyagala, Dr. Lara Devgan and Mr. Patrick Verdonck, Kathleen Dur, Christina Eberli, Michael M. Espiritu, M.D., Daniel Etra, Barbara and R. Bradford Evans, Elizabeth Eveillard, Martin and Kathleen Feldstein, Barbara G. Fleischman, Caitlyn Frank, Susan Grace Galassi, Francesco Genuardi, Sihien Goh, Tom Gold, Robert Goldsmith, Claudia Roberta Huber, Christian Keesee, Jan Kickert, Sidney R. Knafel, Phyllis L. Kossoff, Elizabeth and Jon Kurpis, Howard and Sally Lepow, Nancy A. Marks, Amory McAndrew, Monika McLennan, Clare E. McKeon, Toby Anne Milstein, Arnold and Hilda Neis, Alexandra Porter, Geert de Proost, Kate Reibel, Benjamin Riley, Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Royce, Inge Reist, Barbara Reuter, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Juan Sabater, Sana H. Sabbagh, Xavier F. Salomon, Dr. Stephen K. and Mrs. Janie Woo Scher, Charles N. W. Schlangen, Roberta Schneiderman, , Cynthia D. Sculco, Bernard Selz, Lacary Sharpe, Arlene Shechet, R. Andrew Shore, Carson Sieving, Robert B. Silvers, Robert B. Simon, Victoria Smith, Elizabeth M. Stafford, Gillian Steel, Davide Stefanacci, Sarah Stengel, Kimberly Textor, Brahm Wachter, I, Susan Weber, Christy Williams, and Jennifer Wright.
The celebration, called Into the Garden, took its theme from the current special exhibition Porcelain, No Simple Matter: Arlene Shechet and the Arnhold Collection. As the evening began, guests (mostly dressed in white and various shades of yellow and gold) gathered in the Fifth Avenue Garden, which was in full bloom with flowers depicted in the exhibition and in the Meissen porcelain on display in the Portico Gallery. The garden greenery was accented by four large-scale Meissen animal figurines, the first time the museum has exhibited sculptural statuary outdoors.
At dusk, everyone moved back into the museum, where Dr. UNOs & Dubs kept partygoers on the dance floor until the end of the evening. Guests also visited the museum’s permanent collection and special exhibition galleries and, for the first time, had access to a substantial portion of the mansion’s second-floor spaces, which remained open throughout the evening.
