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Updated: June 11, 2009, 11:59 pm	Share    Print    Email

The stylish Roxine Brown-Fischler and Charles Fischler at the Third Annual Starlight Ball.

Ross School was thrilled to announce that this year's Third Annual Starlight Ball, attended by a sold-out audience of over 350 parents from Ross School, community friends, numerous Morris Center parents and supporters from the New York metropolitan community, was a huge success, netting $275,000 for scholarships for children who depend on need-based financial aid to attend the Ross School. The Steven J. Ross Scholarship Fund was established to ensure that children from diverse social, economic and ethnic backgrounds benefit from a Ross School education. It currently enables fifty percent of the Ross student body to receive a world-class learning experience.

Ross School Founder, Courtney Sale Ross, said, "Due to the dedication and hard work of our parent committee volunteers, our staff, and the support of the entire community, this year's Scholarship event effort tripled the revenue generated by our first Starlight Ball in 2003. We are extremely grateful to everyone who attended, and to our Honorees, Patti and David Silver, and Gerald and Georgia Curatola, for their ongoing commitment and contributions to the School."

Suzanne Leaver, Event Co-Chair and Ross parent, added, "The success of this event is due to the incredible support of parents who appreciate the great opportunities Ross School offers our children. Increasingly, East End families are being joined by children from all over the world seeking the exceptional educational experience that Ross gives."

Brian and Susan Leaver glow at the Starlight Ball.

School CFO Steve Kenney, said, "The Starlight Ball is a great tribute to Steven J. Ross, a renowned humanitarian who, with Courtney Sale Ross, founded Ross School in 1991 to prepare our children to meet the global challenges of the 21st century. Our event's record turnout and amount of Scholarship funds raised underscore that we are meeting our goal of moving towards sustainability."

Highlights of the evening included record-breaking Silent and Live auctions; a tribute to this year's Honorees; plus a film honoring the memory of Steven J. Ross entitled "A Celebration of Life," produced by internationally acclaimed producer and documentarian David L. Wolper, recipient of the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Television Hall of Fame Inductee. Morris Center Parent Barry Allardice says, "The film presentation was a great opportunity to get to know Steven Ross, and to understand the roots of the Ross School. We are fortunate that our children are benefiting from his legacy through the Ross School. I know that many other Morris Center parents felt the same way."

Setai chef Shaun Hergatt with Janet O'Brien.

Baby it's cold outside but down in Miami it's nothing but heat. An offshoot of the famous Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair in Switzerland, the four year old Art Basel Miami Beach aims to "keep it fresh and young," according to Peter Vetsch, the fair's communications manager. From performance art on the beach including professional Gurners who pull off funny faces as a competitive activity to a Taste Bar where designers come up with signature flavors like Orgasm by Vik Muniz (sort of a chocolate meets leather flavor) and Adrenaline by Jenny Holzer (zippy minty) to a revamped star spangled banner played each night this five sense, and even for a select few, sixth sense event is a global experience.

Over 250 galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia took over the convention center in Miami in early December to display the best and brightest in contemporary art. Anything goes in terms of what is art with creations made from pencils, cigarettes, umbrellas, briefs, pantyhose and pudding. Visitors range from young children amused by the unique and colorful images to museum curators and wealthy collectors conducting serious business. Art appreciation may have once meant an aesthetic enjoyment but now it is a return on investment. With a red hot contemporary art market that just set a new record for a single piece at auction, dealer Larry Gagosian paying $21,250,000 for a David Smith sculpture at Sotheby's, players are looking at art not only as decorative design or social commentary but as a stock market.

A stunning sculpture by Eric Fischl.

When a young artist takes off, buyers who picked up his or her work for a few thousand dollars can return the next year to see a six-figure price tag. Understanding this phenomenon, Art Basel includes newer artists and galleries in its Art Nova section, placing this up and coming work on the perimeter of the convention center floor. Gallery owner Andrew Kreps from New York explains that contemporary art is the new luxury good. While some collectors trust their own taste others use gallery owners and consultants to advise them on the best pieces to buy and sell. As Kreps relates, "Each person may feel there is 10% of the art at the fair which is terrific, however each individual might pick a different 10%."

Artists who have homes in the Hamptons who have seen meteoric rises were well represented like Eric Fischl with his "The Dance" prints and sculptures, Julian Schnabel with large-scale paintings, and John Chamberlain with his painted chromium plated steel sculptures. Watermill gallery owner Sarah Nightengale was showing work in the Scope and Frisbee fairs that occupy hotels next to the convention center. Many Hamptonites also went down to South Beach to take in the art and of course enjoy the parties which ranged from the Collins Beach Park where renegade artists set up work in containers to the newly opened elegant Setai Hotel and Residences to private dinners in the Versace mansion.

If how we see our world is reflected in art and art affects how we see our world, the vast experience of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch that is Art Basel encompasses the negative to the positive and the vastness of the human experience in between.