Southampton - The Parrish Art Museum will hold its Midsummer Party on July 10, at the Museum Arboretum. Summer in the Hamptons is like no other time or place in the world, and there is no occasion like the Midsummer Party. The highlight of the summer season, the Midsummer Party is also the Parrish Art Museum's most important fundraising event of the year.

The event co-chairs are Deborah Bancroft and Dorothy Lichtenstein. Honorees are Beth Rudin DeWoody and Ross Bleckner.

One of America's most energetic and creative arts patrons, Beth Rudin DeWoody is a committed philanthropist, collector, curator, and great champion of the Parrish. Her dedication is matched only by her creativity and leadership. Over the years, Beth has served as a trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and New Yorkers for Children, to name just a few.

Ross Bleckner has been the subject of major exhibitions in museums internationally - he was the youngest artist ever to have a solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum - and his brilliant and beautiful paintings are held in prominent collections throughout the world. Also a noted humanitarian, Ross serves on the board of ACRIA and is the only artist ever to be named as a United Nations Ambassador for Goodwill for his work with children in Uganda.

Beth Rudin DeWoody will be feted by Anne Pasternak, President and Artistic Director of Creative Time. Celebrated artist Eric Fischl will deliver a testimonial about Ross Bleckner.

Beginning at 7 p.m. with Cocktails and viewing of Rackstraw Downes: On site Paintings 1972-2008, the first survey of this recent MacArthur Fellow in an American museum, followed at 8 p.m. with Dinner with catering by Glorious Food and music by DJ Tom Finn, and from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Desserts and Dancing with DJ Tom Finn. DÉCOR: Claire Bean, Floral and Event Design.

Always a sell-out, the Parrish's annual gala is a social gathering of the Hamptons' most sophisticated art collectors, artists, socialites, entertainers, philanthropists, and business leaders. Billy Sullivan created a portrait of Beth Rudin DeWoody and Ross Bleckner especially for the invitation.

Always a sell-out, the Parrish's annual gala is a social gathering of the Hamptons' most sophisticated art collectors, artists, socialites, entertainers, philanthropists, and business leaders.

This year's guest list includes Alan and Arlene Alda, Metropolitan Museum Trustee Gayle Perkins Atkins and attorney and investment banker Charles N. Atkins, art gallerist Mary Boone, Lorraine Bracco, designer Liliana Casabal of Morgane le Fay, Parrish Trustee Ira Drukier and Gale Drukier, Maurice DuBois, Peter Duchin and Virginia Coleman, Dallas Ernst, Whitney and James Fairchild, attorney H. Peter Haveles, Jr. and Elizabeth Haveles, art collector and real estate developer Jane Holzer, President of the Robert Lehman Foundation and Parrish Trustee Philip Isles, investment banker Jocelyn Javits, Lisa de Kooning, fashion designer Nicole Miller, investment banker Alex Navab and Mary Kathryn Navab, Chairman of the Nederlander Organization James and Charlene Nederlander, President of the Nederlander Organization James L. Nederlander, Michelle Paige Paterson, Peter Jay Sharp Foundation President Norman Peck and Liliane Peck, real estate developer Stephen Perlbinder and documentary filmmaker Sandy Perlbinder, internet entrepreneur Tatiana Platt and architect Campion Platt, Parrish Trustee Co-Chair and P. Schoenfeld Asset Management Partner and Portfolio Manager Douglas Polley and Goldman Sachs Partner and Managing Director Stacy Bash-Polley, realtor Eric C. Rudin and Fiona Rudin, realtor Bill Rudin and Ophelia Rudin, hedge fund manager Adam Sender and Lenore Sender, former Ambassador to Slovakia and advertising executive Carl Spielvogel and author and arts patron Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, attorney Alexandra Stanton and director of World Policy Institute's Global Economic Architecture Project Sam Natapoff, Tanger Outlet CEO Steven B. Tanger, Parrish Trustee Co-Chair and Sonenshine Partners Partner Carlo Bronzini Vender and Tanya Traykovski, and Parrish Trustee David Wassong.

The artist committee includes John Alexander, Alice Aycock, Jennifer Bartlett, Meghan Boody, Vija Celmins, John Chamberlain, Chuck Close, Michael Combs, Eric Fischl, Connie Fox, April Gornik, Jane Freilicher, Mary Heilmann, Bryan Hunt, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, William King, Steve Miller, Malcolm Morley, Dennis Oppenheim, Randy Polumbo, Wynne Rob, Dorothea Rockburne, Clifford Ross, Matthew Satz, Cindy Sherman, Keith Sonnier, Michelle Stuart, Billy Sullivan, Donald Sultan, Jane Wilson, Robert Wilson, Lucy Winton, Jack Youngerman, and Joe Zucker.

Tickets are: Underwriter: $50,000, Golden Benefactor Table: $25,000, Silver Benefactor Table: $15,000, Grand Patron Table: $10,000, Benefactor ticket: $2,500, Patron ticket: $1,000, and After Ten ticket: $150 (price increases to $150 on June 28).

For tickets or more information call 631-283-2118, ext. 42 or e-mail specialevents@parrishart.org, or go to www.parrishart.org

About The Parrish Art Museum
The Parrish Art Museum celebrates the artistic legacy of Long Island's East End, one of America's most vital creative centers so close to the art center of New York City yet worlds away. The Parrish is home to a world-class permanent collection featuring more than 2,600 works of art by contemporary painters and sculptors such as John Chamberlain, Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, April Gornik and Elizabeth Peyton, Dan Flavin, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and Willem de Kooning. The Parrish houses one of the world's most important collections of works by the preeminent American Impressionist William Merritt Chase, and by the groundbreaking post-war American realist painter Fairfield Porter. The Parrish is a vital cultural resource serving a diverse audience, organizing and presenting exhibitions making available a broad range of art to the community. The Museum offers a dynamic schedule of creative and engaging public programs including lectures, films, performances concerts and studio classes for all ages.