RELATED: Photos from the New Museum’s Bowery Bash

Before the masses entered the New Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday, a week’s worth of partygoers had already explored the building designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, with the order going from rich to famous to artistic to curious.

Major donors were the first to celebrate Tuesday at a “Victory” dinner — in particular, trustees Mitzi Eisenberg and Susan Feinstein, who, with their husbands, the founders of Bed, Bath & Beyond, Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein, provided the lead gift to the museum’s capital campaign.

The “First Look” party the next night was sponsored by Calvin Klein and brought out Thandie Newton, Julianne Moore, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ashley Olsen, and many other young, pretty things.

The next night, a more serious set gathered in honor of the exhibition, “Unmonumental,” curated by Richard Flood. The presence of Mr. Flood’s former boss, director emeritus of the Walker Art Center, Martin Friedman, showed how big art-world events bring out big art-world people.

Friday morning was the mandatory ribbon-cutting attended by local politicians; the actual cutting was done by the director of the museum, Lisa Phillips, its chairman, Saul Dennison, and Mayor Bloomberg.

At night, the Bowery Bash brought out a random mix of people, from trustees to the museum’s neighbors. “We live here; we’ve seen it rise from a hole in the ground,” Frank Penski said. A painter who lives next door, Max Gimblett, said “I’ll bring friends here for lunch.” The son of trustee Stephanie French, Taylor Houghton, 14, checked out the chair in the theater named after him. “I didn’t sit in it; I sat behind it. I just admired it,” he said.

All week long, guests remembered the museum’s start 30 years ago. Dean McNeil met the founding director, Marcia Tucker, in 1980, and the two were married. “I provided early support services, such as rubbing feet,” Mr. McNeil, a carpenter, said. The building’s lobby is named in honor of Tucker, who died last year.

Standing in the lobby, a creative director, Steven Mark Klein, looked back and forward. “It’s exactly what Lisa needed to become the power she’ll be,” Mr. Klein said. “It was inevitable: It started in the Bowery and now it has returned.”

Now anyone can visit, Wednesday through Saturday, for $12, or on Thursday nights for free, courtesy of the financing firm CIT.

agordon@nysun.com