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.
There was no need for a decoration budget at the 23rd Annual Hatter’s Ball Friday night. Not only were the rooms of the James Burden Mansion already stately, lined in marble and tapestries, but the guests themselves provided a rainbow of eye-popping color. The event calls for guests to design their own hats, which they show off during a 15-minute parade.
“The Gates” was the most popular theme, with other chapeaux references to Jason Giambi, “Desperate Housewives,” and the aphorism “Time flies.” All that creativity didn’t go unrewarded: the prize for top topper, who represented New York’s bid to host the Olympics, was a trip for two to Bermuda. And the event raised $50,000 for scholarships at Creative Arts, a four-week summer camp at Convent of the Sacred Heart offering instruction in art, theater, music, photography, computers, and sports.
Among the guests were parents, teachers, and alumna of the school and camp, and others with no affiliation to the school, who just enjoy the spectacle. The event and the camp are the brainchild of the school’s theater studies director, Suzanne Clifton Walsh. Actors Jim Dale and Simon Jones were on hand to toast the theatrically-minded crowd.
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Sanskriti Center, an Indian school in Manhattan teaching classical dance, yoga, and art and architecture, held its first benefit the other night. It was a night to celebrate Indian culture. Guests, many in brightly hued saris, enjoyed a dinner of Indian delicacies flown in from Bombay. One of India’s most renowned dancers, Sonal Man Singh, performed.
“Sanskriti is important to the New York community at large. It is for all children of all backgrounds,” a host of the event, Payal Chaudhri, said. (Kelly Tagore, Meera Gandhi, and Tania Ahuja were also hosts.)
The school has six teachers and 55 students, primarily children ages 8-14, some of Indian descent but many American-born. The school started in the home of its founder, Swati Bhise, who came to America from India in 1982. Today the school meets in rented space in a church on the Upper East Side, but Ms. Bhise would like a permanent home and has socked away $150,000 in contributions. “I’m sure someone will come forth and give us a building – I’m keeping my fingers as well as my toes crossed,” Ms. Bhise said.
