El Museo's 2009 Pre Gala Celebrates With The Fashion Forward

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On Monday April 27, 2009 El Museo’s Gala Chairman Yaz and Valentín Hernández and Isabel and Ruben Toledo hosted El Museo’s Pre Gala cocktail party at Mauboussin to announce plans for the upcoming El Museo Gala ‘09. From six o’clock until eight o’clock guests were invited to cocktails and Mother’s day shopping at the renowned French jeweler Mauboussin, which recently opened its first flagship store in the United States. Designed by the Rockwell Group, guests mingled, and sipped on cocktails as they shopped throughout the five floors of the boutique showcasing Mauboussin’s full range of jewelry, watches and accessories.

As guests arrived they were greeted on the fourth floor at the "salon des gourmandises" with a selection of cocktails, pastries and other delectables made by Bouchon Bakery. El Museo’s chairman Tony Bechara mingled with designers Reem Acra, Christian Cota, Gemma Khang, Kai Kuhne, Angel Sanchez. Guests included Harper’s Bazaar Editor-in-Chief Glenda Bailey, Mexican super model Liliana Dominguez, Yanna Avis, Melissa Berkelhammer, Geoffrey Bradfield, Christine Cachot, Marjorie Reed Gordon, Ann Rapp, Samantha Thompson, Richard Turley, Carmen Ana and Joe Unanue, and George Wayne.

El Museo’s Gala ’09 is planned for Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. In a first-time collaboration, artist Ruben Toledo, together with children from El Museo’s Classroom Connections program, will create a whimsical gallery of 68 portraits, including some of the most famous faces in Latin American history and culture, as well as leading Latino New Yorkers. The portraits as well as El Museo’s limited edition cigars also designed by Ruben Toledo will be sold at the gala to benefit the museum.

El Museo del Barrio was founded in 1969, and is New York’s leading Latino cultural institution, representing the diversity of art and culture in all of the Caribbean and Latin America. El Museo has had a significant impact on New York’s culture, and is a major stop on Manhattan’s Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue. Currently El Museo is undergoing a $22 million-dollar facelift, which will be completed this fall.

Committee members include Jonathan Adler, Narciso Rodriguez, Diane von Furstenberg, and Jason Wu, along with Patricia Field, Candy Pratts Price, and Zang Toi. The gala chairs included Yaz and Valentin Hernandez and Ruben and Isabel Toledo.