Monday Kick Off

Lunchtime at the Waldorf: Caroline Kennedy gives a passionate speech on the importance of arts education in the city's public schools, on the 18th floor of the hotel, where a professional organization for women in the arts, ArtTable, held its annual luncheon. [photos here] Meanwhile in the ballroom on the third floor, the director of the Peabody Awards, Horace Newcomb, presented 35 Peabody awards in film, television, and radio. Winners included NBC's "Friday Night Lights," ABC's "Ugly Betty," and StoryCorps, the recording booth that gathered oral histories all over the country, including in New York at Grand Central Terminal. [photos here] Tonight in the ballroom, Metro International is holding a gala to support its programs for Fulbrights scholars pursuing study in the New York area. Honorees are a Deutsche Bank Managing Director, Christopher Burnham; a philanthropist, Meera Gandhi, who supports the Eleanor Roosevelt Center and Amnesty International, and her husband, a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, Vikram Gandhi, the founder of the wealth management company LongChamp Group, Jean Karoubi, and actress Phylicia Rashad.