The Dia Art Foundation celebrated its temporary home at the Hispanic Society of America, at 155th Street, by starting its fall gala on Monday at the society and then seating guests for dinner in the Church Of The Intercession across the street.

“Dia takes on many different guises. The experience often requires travel and a good sense of adventure, whether it’s spending the night in a cabin to see ‘The Lightning Field,’ taking Metro North up the Hudson to visit Dia: Beacon, or braving traffic to come uptown tonight,” the chairwoman of Dia, Nathalie de Gunzburg, said.

The director of the foundation since June, Jeffrey Weiss, promised announcements in the “near future” about a physical presence for the foundation in New York, and outlined the priorities in defining it, using the Francis Alÿs installation at the Hispanic Society as an example.

“The intent is to assemble these contemporary paintings in this historic building so they look not entirely out of place. In this way the installation is disorienting and uncanny,” Mr. Weiss said.

Similarly, in the process of searching for space, Mr. Weiss said the foundation would “explore historic buildings,” in part to “reclaim what is already there” and also to create new experiences through the art it displays there.

Mr. Weiss described Dia: Beacon, the foundation’s museum in Beacon, N.Y. built under his predecessor, Michael Govan, as a “superb and enduring space for the permanent collection,” adding that “commissions and special projects will be the next reinvention of Dia.”

agordon@nysun.com