The Phillips Announces 2017 Annual Gala with Embassy of Germany
WASHINGTON—Director Dorothy Kosinski, Chairman Dani Levinas and the Board of Trustees, and host AT&T with Kay and Sunny Kapoor announced that The Phillips Collection’s Annual Gala will be held on Friday, May 19, 2017. Serving as 2017 Diplomatic Chair is His Excellency Peter Wittig, The Ambassador of Germany, and Mrs. Huberta von Voss-Wittig.
The Annual Gala, Maifest: A Spring Celebration of German Art and Culture, is inspired by the traditional German celebration of the arrivalof spring. In honor of the museum’s longstanding relationship with theGerman Embassy, the evening celebrates the artistic exchange and cultural diplomacy between the United States and Germany.
The evening coincides with the Contemporaries Bash: Berlin Underground—a sensational night of cocktails, music, food, fashion, and dancing at Dock 5 at Union Market that attracts more than 700 ofthe city’s young professionals.
CELEBRATION OF GERMAN ARTS AND CULTURE
Founder Duncan Phillips emphasized the importance of carefullycrafting his collection, and the Phillips’s acquisitions and presentationsof works by German artists have followed suit. In March 2013, the Phillips opened the Laib Wax Room, a meditative space by Germanartist Wolfgang Laib that drew inspiration from the Phillips’s belovedRothko Room. During the fall of 2015, the Phillips received a transformative gift from gallerist Michael Werner of 46 works by postwar German artists including Markus Lüpertz, Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff, and A. R. Penck—acquisitions which reflect Duncan Phillips’s practice of building “units” of works by certain artists. Just as Duncan Phillips showcased the works of innovative and important artists of his day, the museum has also acquired the work of Anselm Kiefer, Justine Otto, Franz Erhard Walther, and others, and presentedsome of Germany’s finest musicians.
Later this spring, The Phillips Collection and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden will present a dual exhibition collaboration featuring the work of artist Markus Lüpertz. Opening on May 27 and curated by Director Dorothy Kosinski, the Phillips’s Markus Lüpertz, will trace the entirety of the artist’sfive-decade career from the 1960s through the present. Curated by Evelyn Hankins and opening on May24, the Hirshhorn’s Markus Lüpertz: Threads of History will offer an in-depth look at the artist’sformative years of 1962–1967.
2017 HONOREES
The Phillips’s Annual Gala provides a platform to acknowledgeindividuals who play critical roles in promoting and supporting arts education. This year, the museum recognizes the invaluable contributions and impact of Honorary Board Chairman and Trustee Emeritus George Vradenburg and Trish Vradenburg.
SUPPORTING ARTS EDUCATION
The Annual Gala raises critical resources for the museum’saward-winning education programs that inspire creativity, foster a greater understanding of our world, and provide lifelong learning experiences for art-lovers of all ages in our community, across the country, and around the world. These initiatives include the development of Prism.K12 to encourage arts-integrated curricula, efforts to connect art and wellness, regular programming to broaden appreciation of the arts across the community, and a partnership with arts and education center THEARC located in DC’s Ward 8.
The Phillips Collection expresses gratitude to all 2017 Annual Gala supporters:
2017 Gala Host
AT&T | Kay and Sunny Kapoor
2017 Diplomatic Chair
His Excellency Peter Wittig, The Ambassador of Germany, and Mrs. Huberta von Voss-Wittig
2017 Gala Honorary Chairs
Diane Rehm
Katherine and David Bradley
2017 Gala Committee
Lisa Barry and James Gale Christopher Carr
Lisa Gonyea
Barbara Hall
Barbara Hawthorn Lori Jenkins
Jessica Marventano John D. Mason
The Honorable Ann Stock Nancy and Harold Zirkin