Before starting her remarks as an honoree of the American Folk Art Museum’s annual gala on Tuesday night, Joyce Cowin put an hourglass on the table.

“Three minutes,” she said.

Yet no one minded when she flipped the hourglass over and continued speaking. The vice chairwoman of the museum had enchanted her audience of 540 guests at Roseland Ballroom with tales of the quilted jacket she was wearing, given to her by her late husband, Daniel, more than 50 years ago, and the piece of tramp art that started her collection of folk art. She also invited everyone to visit the Lincoln Square outpost of the museum, whose reopening on October 30 she funded.

The chief executive of Time Warner, Richard Parsons, confessed he is not a devotee of folk art. But he was happy to be an honoree to support his wife, Laura, the chairwoman of the museum, whom he married 39 years ago.

“I’ve waited 39 years to be able to say with absolute candor, if it wasn’t for my wife, I wouldn’t be here tonight,” Mr. Parsons said.

An honoree, Edgar Cullman, also had a familial explanation for why he was honored: He’d been swept up by his daughter Lucy’s enthusiasm and energy for the museum.

The honorees helped make the event a success, but the opening of the exhibit “Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel” also did its part to attract three times the number of guests as last year, and raise $1 million. The show, curated by Murray Zimiles, is becoming a blockbuster for the museum, attracting more than 2,000 visitors a week.

“This is the kind of museum and collection that really speaks to the American spirit. No where else is the art on view so exciting, accessible, and informative about the American spirit,” the director of the American Folk Art Museum, Maria Ann Conelli, said.

The gala had a carousel and carnival theme, with stilt-walkers dressed in red, white, and blue and a magician stopping by dinner tables turning individual pearls into miniature horses.

A dinner chairman, Selig Sacks, crossed over to folk art after collecting contemporary art. “I was blown away by the energy and emotion of the artists,” Mr. Sacks, who donated a Purvis Young painting for the event’s auction, said. He is looking forward to the museum’s exhibition “Darger-ism,” about the impact of Henry Darger on contemporary artists, which will open April 15.

agordon@nysun.com