Montreal Fine Arts Museum Annual Ball, Montreal
A record $1.5-million was raised on Nov. 3 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’s 58th annual ball, a black-tie gathering I consider one of Canada’s best. It perennially brims with whimsy and is stocked with connected culture connoisseurs and a flock of finance and fashion folk. For the MMFA, which self-finances nearly 60 per cent of its annual operating budget, this latest event was a fundraising coup and will allow the museum to continue to roll out impressive programs and must-see exhibitions. Speaking of fashion, this year’s do, titled Nuit Couture, celebrated Quebec’s rag-trade rulers: The work of nine local designers including Marie Saint Pierre, Helmer Joseph and Fecal Matter (I kid you not) served as the inspiration for the galleries-cum-dining-rooms, which hosted the nearly 950 in attendance. Handling co-president duties (the Quebec version of co-chairs) for the evening was Bio-K+ chief executive Isabèle Chevalier, Cirque du Soleil and Invest in Canada board chair Mitch Garber; and Mavrik Corp. president Mark Pathy. In keeping with the fashion theme, the evening concluded with a preview of Thierry Mugler: Couturissime, an exhibition curated by Thierry-Maxime Loriot, which opens at the MMFA in early March.
Steven Raj Bhaskaran and Hannah Rose Dalton, designers at Fecal Matter, Danielle Champagne and Thierry-Maxime Loriot.Pierre Longtin
Nathalie Bondil and Nathalie Roy.Jimmy Hamelin
Isabèle Chevalier and Christian Larose.Jimmy Hamelin
Vancouver Public Library Foundation’s Beyond the Book Gala, Vancouver
A few weeks earlier and somewhat further west, the Vancouver Public Library Foundation held its inaugural Beyond the Book gala on Sept. 27. The evening, co-chaired by finance type John Montalbano and his wife, Dana, and OpenRoad Auto Group chief executive Christian Chia and his wife, Carol, raised north of a half-million dollars, funds that will support literacy and reading programming for children and teens across VPL’s 21 locations (which last year had 6.5 million visits) and the expansion of the Children’s Library. The soirée was given in a white tent erected for the evening atop the library’s just opened two-level rooftop expansion on the magnificent outdoor terrace designed by landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander.
John Montalbano and Christian Chia.Kai Jacobson
Susan Knott and Kyla Epstein.Martin Dee
Carol Chia.Martin Dee
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