Inside The 2014 American Folk Art Museum Fall Benefit Gala

The American Folk Art Museum’s Benefit Gala: “In Celebration of Our Treasures” raised $1 million for the Museum’s exhibitions and educational programs, with 513 guests in attendance. The evening honored Joyce Berger Cowin for her leadership over the past four decades, and a Museum Trustee for over twenty years. Mrs. Cowin’s vision for our Museum at 2 Lincoln Square has ensured that folk art is accessible to New Yorkers and visitors of every age and background.

The event also heralded Richard Walker, general counsel of Deutsche Bank, for his passion for folk art, and the company’s support of innovative educational programs; and The Henry Luce Foundation,accepted by Board Chair Margaret Boles Fitzgerald. As part of their 75th anniversary initiative, the Henry Luce Foundation funded the New York City presentation and six-city national tour of Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum with a grant of $1.6 million, making the museum’s extraordinary and unique collection accessible to hundreds of thousands of people in cities across the country.

The gala was chaired by Peyton Cochran, Lucy and Mike Danziger, and Nancy and Michael Druckman. The American Folk Art Museum is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of traditional folk art and creative expressions of contemporary self-taught artists from the United States and abroad. The museum preserves, conserves, and interprets a comprehensive collection of the highest quality, with objects dating from the eighteenth century to the present.

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