Julianne Moore, Jeremy Strong and More Show Their Support for Public Art
The annual Creative Time Gala honored Creative Time board chair Jon Neidich, social artist Rick Lowe and artist collective New Red Order.
For Golden Age Hospitality owner Jon Neidich, everything leads back to Creative Time.
“Effectively I opened Acme so that I would have the credentials to join the Creative Time board,” Neidich told the crowd at Skylight at Essex Crossing in the Lower East Side. Neidich was one of the honorees at this year's gala, alongside social practice artist Rick Lowe and art collective New Red Order. The annual event raises support for Creative Time's public art projects, including New Red Order's recent Long Island City installation “The World's UnFair,” which called for the return of Indigenous land.
“I learned from a young age that being a great collector wasn't enough, and it wasn't the point,” Neidich continued. “The point was to support artists. Moreover it was about giving to the artists so that the artist's voice could be heard,” he added. “Thank you mom, and dad.”
Neidich's mother, Brooke Garber Neidich, was a cohost for the evening with Kate Young and Jeremy Strong. During cocktail hour, Strong greeted Michelle Williams and Julianne Moore, both accompanied by their director husbands, Thomas Kail and Bart Freundlich. The evening had an unexpected celebratory mark for the film and TV crowd: the end of the actors strike. Other guests included Tribeca Festival founder Jane Rosenthal, Antwaun Sargent, Mickalene Thomas, Waris Ahluwalia, Paul Arnhold, Willie Norris, Guest in Residence cofounder Isaac Ross and Will Cotton.
“Man, this is not a basketball crowd,” remarked former cultural affairs commissioner Tom Finkelpearl, whose sport anecdote failed to resonate with the room as he delivered a toast for Lowe.
“We're serious about art, and we're serious about parties,” said Creative Time executive director Justine Ludwig, as guests dined on the Kaspian Potato from the menu at NoHo restaurant The Nines. “We can facilitate paradigm shifting art, and hold space like tonight for much needed communal joy.”
After the final toasts of the evening, drag artist West Dakota danced across the room, calling attention to the after party dance floor that had been unveiled from behind a curtain. As the music grew louder, passed dessert — and absinthe shots — helped to keep the party going.