A Benefit Dinner for the Black Alumni of Pratt at The Four Seasons Restaurant
On June 20th, I attended a function for the Black Alumni of Pratt (BAP), celebrating its 22nd anniversary. Pratt Institute is a private college in New York City and is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States. The gathering, Celebration of the Creative Spirit, is a scholarship benefit dinner honoring creative people in the arts that raises funds for gifted minority students at Pratt, and was held at the wonderful Four Seasons Restaurant in Manhattan. The five distinguished honorees for the evening were Bill White, Pete Peterson, Edward Enninful, Stephen Sills, and Chuck Close. I was asked to introduce my friend, Stephen Sills, the Founder and President of Stephen Sills Associates. In between the presentation of awards, guests were asked to take out their cell phones, iPhones, Blackberries, and Droids and take part in something called Text-to-Pledge, contributing to The Black Alumni. Here are photos from a most enjoyable occasion.
1 Al Roker was at the celebration and it was great to see him outside of our time together on the Today Show.
2 Posing with Nazee and Joseph Moinian and Soheila Adelipour
3 Here I am with Rodney Strong - Pratt photo student and David Paterson - Former Governor of New York State.
4 I love this very special clutch that Michael Kane of Nantucket Basket gave me. https://www.michaelkaneslightshipbaskets.com/
5 The cocktail hour was quite lively.
6 With the very dapper Ward Simmons - Vice President of Marketing and PR at Hugo Boss
7 Ward Simmons with honoree Stephen Sills - Founder and President Stephen Sills Associates
8 It was nice to see friends Bunny Williams - interior designer and her husband John Rosselli - antiques dealer.
9 With Dwayne Ashley - Chief Officer, Development, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Amery Moultry - Director of Photography at Almo Studios Media
10 The inimitable Liz Smith - gossip columnist aka The Grand Dame of Dish
11 The Pool Room was cheery and inviting.
12 The flowers were designed by The Color of Magic. http://thecolorofmagic.com.
13 Generously full gift bags hung from each chair.
14 Edward Enninful - Fashion and Style Director for W Magazine with Stefano Tonchi - editor of W magazine. Edward was another recipient that night of the Creative Spirit Award.
15 A photo with Edward and Stefano
16 With Grace Coddington - creative director of American Vogue magazine
17 Georgette Mosbacher - CEO of Borghese looked terrific, as always.
18 The former Mayor David Dinkins and his wife Joyce Dinkins are staunch supporters of the Black Alumni of Pratt and were Honorary Co-Chairs of the benefit.
19 Each guest was given the latest version of View-Master, which were all loaded with photos of the honorees.
20 Before each honoree was introduced, we were instructed to view a new slide.
21 Here I am looking through my View-Master. The View Master is 73-years-old. The design and invention was introduced at the New York 1939 World’s Fair. Since then, it’s been used by the military for training purposes, tourism, teaching, and entertainment.
22 Gerri Brown - President, The Black Alumni of Pratt, welcomed everyone to the 22nd Anniversary of The Black Alumni of Pratt (BAP) Creative Spirit Awards Celebration.
23 Dr. Thomas Schutte - President of Pratt Institute told us that Pratt is the only one out of the top three Art and Design Institutes that has a Black alumni association.
24 Georgette Mosbacher gave a very moving introduction of her friend, Bill White, and another recipient of the Creative Spirit Award.
25 Bill White - CEO of Constellations Group, a consulting company for corporations that need help with business strategies or achieving philanthropic goals
26 Barbara Walters introduced Pete Peterson - founder of Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The group strives to create fiscal awareness in America.
27 Pete Peterson was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
28 Edward Enninful - Fashion and Style Director, W Magazine, receiving his Creative Spirit Award
29 Here I am at the podium introducing Stephen Sills.
30 Stephen is a good friend and a wonderful designer.
31 Al Roker with his lovely wife Deborah Roberts
32 Georgette Mosbacher and Barbara Walters
33 A smartly dressed Pratt student
34 The dinner menu included a deliciously refreshing heirloom tomato watermelon gazpacho.
35 The entree was Maryland crabmeat cakes with mustard sauce.
36 And dessert was a decadent Black Forest cake.
37 And then the cotton candy was served! The Four Seasons serves cotton candy to honor special occasions.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
You looked lovely in your lace dress. I remember that purse from a long while back, but don't remember in what context. It is very pretty..
I hope you and everyone else had a good 4th.
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | July 5th, 2012 at 12:16 am
Martha...you look so wonderful in your confection of lace dress...there's something about Martha!
Such a lovely event and lovely guests.
Posted by: Sherey | July 5th, 2012 at 1:27 am
Hi Martha, First I want to tell you my computer went down about 9PM last night and it took until 3AM for my brother to finally get it running again so I decided to comment now while I'm still awake! Oh what fun life can be and you have the funnest, most inspiring life that I have ever seen! This event you shared with us is absolutely fantastic! I love all of your wonderful photos and you look so beautiful in all of the photos of you! Everyone there sure was having fun and how nice to see Al Roker, Deborah Roberts, and Barbara Walters and all of the other nice people at the event! Everyone looked so happy and you looked the happiest! The Four Seasons Restaurant sure is a nice place to have a dinner and this food looked so delicious! How nice it was that you presented your friend Stephen Sills with his award and he looked so happy! Hope you had a great 4th of July and enjoyed your tweets about the beautiful, cloudy, reddish sky-gorgeous! Hope you have another great day! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | July 5th, 2012 at 6:48 am
Thanks for letting us be part of a life that is beyond my imagination. Know nothing of Pratt and we are very proud of our own Kathy Neset being added to Dakota State Board of Higher Education. Our sons were home for glorious July 4th bash that had no famous personalities in attendance but was a great occasion for the over 75 people who gathered for a wonderful time of fun, food, and fireworks.
Posted by: ann | July 5th, 2012 at 8:21 am
I hope you had an enjoyable 4th of July Martha, I also enjoyed the pictures you tweeted of the beautiful sky, the colors were stunning. The benefit dinner for the Black Alumni of Pratt looked like a lively affair. I enjoyed seeing pics of Al Roker and his lovely wife and Barbara Walters. You of course Martha always look elegant and refined. The clutch you are carrying is so pretty and unique.Thanks for sharing this evening with your fans!
Posted by: Cindy F | July 5th, 2012 at 8:23 am
Dear Martha:
I have been following you for years and specially I watched all the episodes while you were at NBC. I don't have cable so I could not follow you at Hallmark, but my greatest desires is to meet you someday when you come to greater Los Angeles area. I love everything you stand for and I support you!
I can't wait to see your new cooking show at PBS next fall. I will be watching faitfully.
Yours very truly and your foreever fan.
Diana
Posted by: diana escobar | July 5th, 2012 at 8:59 am
Martha. Lovely as Usual. Such a Great Event to Attend.
Posted by: Darlene Martinez | July 5th, 2012 at 11:13 am
Martha,
I'm back home from vacay! The north west is a beautiful place.
This event you attended was very nice and sounds like for a good purpose. Thanks for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | July 5th, 2012 at 4:55 pm
You look beautiful Martha, love your dress and your clutch. Beautiful evening
I read your previous post your kittens are sooo cute congrats.
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | July 5th, 2012 at 5:28 pm
What a beautiful event! I loved the clutch too!
Posted by: Karen | July 6th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
I am loving your purse with the lovely neutral beige outfit. Very pretty Martha!
Posted by: Nantucket Daffodil at Prince Snow Farm | July 7th, 2012 at 7:22 am
Martha is a very sophisticated woman. Her stature truly out-stands women in her surroundings. She has this appeal that has been captured to perfection by way of the camera set in this blog pictures shown above.
If I ever got to her age, I do wish I could have her appeal.
I also had my eyes on the bag shown in page 13 of the pictures.
I am sure the event was very entertaining.
Best Regards,
Carissa
Posted by: Carissa at Treehouse | October 7th, 2012 at 12:23 am