SEEN: John and Anna Sie honored at Collectors’ Choice 37
It should come as no surprise that John Sie, the founder and former chairman of Starz Entertainment group and the man regarded as the father of digital television, has a keen eye for detail.
As does his wife, Anna. Few things slip past them, whether in business, philanthropy or everyday life.
Yet you could have knocked them over with a feather when toward the end of cocktail hour at Collectors’ Choice 37, two of their favorite entertainers, opera singers Hao Jiang Tian and Wei Wu, began serenading them.
“Did you know about this? I didn’t know about this; did you?” John and Anna asked each other as the 400 who’d come to see them honored at the Denver Art Museum’s signature fundraiser broke into applause after Tian, a star of the Metropolitan Opera, and Wu, who recently appeared in the Santa Fe Opera’s world premiere of “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” sang several of the couple’s favorite arias.
John Sie, a DAM trustee since 2002, and his wife are among the museum’s most valued supporters. In February they pledged $12 million to support the construction of a new welcome center at the entry to the museum’s North Building. In previous years they have made generous contributions to the Frederic C. Hamilton Building Capital Campaign and the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign. Their support also enabled the DAM to host Xu Beihong: Pioneer of Modern Chinese Painting, a 2011 exhibition that featured some 60 works by the iconic Chinese artist.
The Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center, said museum director Christoph Heinrich, will provide visitors with “a wideopen arms greeting, a welcoming beacon to visitors and the neighborhood, while creating a clear and accessible point of entry to the North Building.”
The Sies’ daughter and son-inlaw, Michelle and Tom Whitten, chaired the gala with Sharon Magness Blake and Ernie Blake; Rita and Navin Diamond; Michelle and Mike Fries; Denise O’leary and Kent Thiry; and Sue and Don Sturm.
Renovation of the North Building caused Collectors’ Choice to be held at a venue other than the museum: the Hyatt Regency Convention Center. There, guests enjoyed cocktails, pizza (a nod, no doubt, to Anna Sie’s Italian heritage) and the operatic interlude in the Capitol Ballroom foyer before sitting down to dinner and dancing to the music of the Atlantic City Boys.
Gov. John Hickenlooper was one of several who praised the Sies for their commitment to making the world a better place.
“They build things that last,” he said, citing not just at the museum, but the Denver Film Festival, “Which wouldn’t be where it is without the Sies;” the Sie Cheou-kang Center for International Security and Diplomacy and the Anna and John J. Sie International Relations Complex, both at the University of Denver; the Global Down Syndrome Foundation; the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome; Denver School of Science and Technology and the Biofrontiers Institute, just to name a few.
In accepting their award, Anna Sie observed that “It’s hard to believe that it has been over 60 years since we came to the U.S. — John from China and me from Italy — but we are so proud to be part of this country. To be able to leave this world a little better has been our privilege.”
The $670,000 that was raised at Collectors’ Choice 37 goes to Vision 2021, a capital campaign that includes the renovation of the North Building, a structure designed by Gio Ponti and considered to be the largest work of art in the museum’s collection.
Guests included former Ambassador Christopher Hill and his wife, Julie; Ellie Caulkins; Jane Hamilton; Denver City Councilman Wayne New and his wife, Leslie; Trygve and Vicki Myhren; William Matthews and Laura Barton; Fred and Jana Bartlit; Barry and Arlene Hirschfeld; Amanda Precourt and Andrew Jensdotter; Eva and Dr. Denis Lanier; Chris and Joy Dinsdale; Dick and Cathey Finlon; Robert and Lisa Kessler; Nancy Lake Benson; Melinda Douglas; Bob and Liane Clasen; Paul Ramsey; Ken and Judy Robins; Will Labahn; Dick and Marcia Robinson; Bob and Myra Rich; Greg and Sharon Maffei; Norm and Sunny Brownstein and state Treasurer Walker Stapleton with his wife, Jenna.