Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Artists – both established and starving – got their first peek at the Museum of Modern Art Tuesday night. While some critics have hailed the way the renovated museum presents work, on this starry night the artists themselves were on display. Most guests checked out the crowd with their backs to Monet’s “Water Lilies.”
In attendance were such talents as Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, Chuck Close, and Robert Rauschenberg. Others spotted: the picture-perfect couple Rachel Feinstein and John Currin; John Baldessari; Francisco Clemente; Takashi Murakami; Kiki Smith; John Waters, and Fran Lebowitz.
“I can’t name them all – it was like the Grammys of the art world,” said sculptor Chris Yockey, who attended with his girlfriend, Andrea Corson, also a sculptor. “We’re studio-rat artists,” said Ms. Corson, describing the hand-to-mouth state of their careers.
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The City Parks Foundation raised $600,000 at its gala Tuesday night – enough money to run its golf education program for three years. The summer program teaches golf to children at parks in their own neighborhoods, rather than bringing them to golf courses. “Golf courses can be intimidating. There are all sorts of psychological barriers,” said the foundation’s executive director, David Rivel.
After basic training with golf whiffle balls, children go on to driving ranges, “when they’re ready, and good enough, so it won’t be a frustrating experience for them,” Mr. Rivel added. The program takes place in 10 parks and is adding an academy by try-out for intensive instruction.
One of the program’s champions is Citigroup private banker Philip Waterman, a board member and an amateur golfer with a handicap of 6.
“I want to produce the next Tiger,” Mr. Waterman told the 400 guests as they ate dinner in the Plaza’s ballroom.
The foundation’s board members help to support work in 700 of the city’s 1,700 parks. They include Paul Williams, whose favorite park is Mount Morris; Joan Gillman, whose favorite park is Marcus Garvey; as well as Carra Scott, Robert Savitt, Edward Adler and John Troubh, whose stepmother, Jean Troubh, is the board chairman.
