The 2019 Summer Gala was our best yet, raising more than ever before to support free public programs and education. A huge thank you to our wonderful Gala Sponsors, our Gala Chairs, the entire Gala committee and to all who attended! Save the date and plan to join us next year on Friday, July 17, 2020!
Please enjoy this slideshow of some of the best photos of the evening.
Each year, the Farnsworth presents the Maine in America award at the summer gala. The award is presented by the Farnsworth to honor an individual or group who has made an outstanding contribution to Maine’s role in American art. The 2019 awardees are Rudy Burckhardt, Lois Dodd, Rackstraw Downes, Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, Yvonne Jacquette, Alex Katz, and Neil Welliver.
In the years immediately following the end World War II, a group of young, avant-garde artists based in New York discovered, like generations of artists before them, the pleasures of summering and working in Maine.
What they found in Lincolnville was a simple lifestyle that offered a welcome respite from the often frenetic pace and all-absorbing nature of life in New York. As an added benefit it was inexpensive to live here, important to artists at the very beginning of their careers when financial security was something sought but far from a reality. Importantly, they also found attractive subject matter for their work. The Slab City artists sought an alternative to the Abstract Expressionist styles that dominated critical circles in New York. Maine’s coasts, islands, woodlands, and people provided them with an opportunity to forge new directions through their largely representational work based on what they saw and experienced here.
This group became one of the most important in the 150-year history of artists working in Maine, and they re-established Maine as a source for artistic inspiration in the decades following the Great Depression and World War II, adding a vital chapter in the ongoing story of Maine’s role in American art. Opening on April 13, 2019 and running through March 15, 2020, the Farnsworth Art Museum presents Slab City Rendezvous an exhibition named for the road in Lincolnville on which Katz, Cohen, and Dodd bought a house together in the early 1950s.
More information on the Maine in America Award is available here below.
Farnsworth Summer Gala
Sylvia de Leon, co-chairperson
Liv Rockefeller, co-chairperson
Evelyn Isom, co-chairperson
This annual Gala celebration is the perfect moment for the Farnsworth to recognize an artist, or patron of the arts, who have significantly furthered Maine’s role in American art. Each year, the presentation of the Maine in America Award is the kick-off of the spectacular Gala celebration. Congratulations to the Slab City artists, our 2019 Maine in America Award winner. Please enjoy an album of the photos from the 2018 Gala here, and another album here.
2019 SPONSORS
Diamond $25,000
Gail and John Bertuzzi
Stephanie L. Brown
Vicki and Alan Goldstein
Evelyn and Gerry Isom
Ruby $20,000
Charles Altschul
Gold $15,000
Ann and Dick Costello
Sylvia de Leon & Lynn R. Colemen
Kenneth N. Shure and Liv M. Rockefeller
Commercial Tent
Silver $10,000
Anonymous
Charles Butt
Tina and Joe Pyne
Holly and Nick Ruffin
Susan and George Schreiber
Laura and Ed Waller
In memory of Polly Mudge Welliver
Bronze $5,000
Anonymous
Paula Carreiro and Peter Branch
Cascade Foundation
Mazie Livingston Cox and Brinkley Thorne
Susan Deutsch and Carlisle Towery
Dowling Walsh Gallery
Lisa and Brian Garrison
The Gilder Foundation
Toshiko Mori
Heidi and Kevin Naughton
Tom and Beth Renyi
Peter Rothschild
Dan and Sheryl Tishman
Copper $2,500
Alexandre Gallery, New York
Charlton and Noni Ames
Kit and Richard Aroneau
John and Mary Alice Bird
Julie P. Cawley
CedarWorks
Randall Chanler and Andrew Stancioff
Cornelia Cogswell Rossi Foundation, Inc.
Annie de Cossy
Lucy and Bill Farland
Dr. and Mrs. Kent Farris
fourTwelve
Anna Grace and Paul Holloway
Scott Chamberlain Hoyt
Suzanne and Douglas Kahn
Molly and Frederic Kellogg
Gregory and Donna Knowlton
Lisa Kranc
Robert E. Kulp, Jr
Elizabeth S. Kunkle
Tamara and Robin Lloyd
Maritime Energy
Ed and Carol Miller
John and Sandra Moore
David and Gayle Noble
Penmor
Stephen and Marybeth Pullum
F.L. Putnam Investment Management Company
Ellen Seidman and Walt Slocombe
Ron Stern and Elisse Walter
Norman and Susan Thomas
Mary H. White
Wipfli | Macpage
Brass $1,500
Keith and Mary Collins
Cliff and Sheryl Dacso
Eric Grossman, M.D.
James and Anne Jenkins
Dick and Lydia Kaeyer
Cathy Landau-Painter and Charles Mamane
Valerie and Bob Slater
Sabina A. Wood Art & Antiques
In Kind
Trillium Caterers
Primary Media Sponsor
Maine Home + Design
Local Leaders
Atlantic Baking Company
Clan McClaren
The Lobster Shack
Fiore
Clementine