Isabel Toledo Hosts El Museo's Gala At Cipriani's

[Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA and Yaz Hernandez At El Museo Gala]

Go HERE for more photos from this event by Antwan Duncan

El Museo del Barrio was at it again last night. This time at their annual black tie Gala at Cipriani's. Antwan got a chance to rub elbows with everyone involved in this amazing organization as well as Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA (tough gig I know). The event was chaired by Ruben + Isabel Toledo and Yaz + Valentin Herrera to Honor Poet Mario Vargas Llosa. With several big names on the committee, gofg was honored to be covering.

As it is the Latin American tradition, El Museo Gala’s fifteenth birthday will be celebrated in the style of a quinceañero; this is a coming-of-age party for a daughter turning fifteen. For this gala, guests were invited to wear white or black (with long gloves and tiaras optional).

El Museo will honor Dr. Mario Vargas Llosa, Ambassador Paul L. Cejas and Mrs. Trudy Cejas, and Mr. Angel Collado-Schwarz of Fundación Voz del Centro. Special guests will include Miss Universe, Riyo Mori; Miss Teen USA, Hilary Cruz; and the newly crowned Miss USA, and they will be wearing their tiaras.

This year’s Gala Chairs were Yaz and Valentín Hernández, and Ruben and Isabel Toledo.

The Gala Vice Chairs are Estrellita Brodsky, Clarissa Bronfman, and Carmen Ana Casal de Unanue. Mayra Hernandez, Luisana Mendoza, Jana Pasquel de Shapiro, Carlos Ponce, Samantha Thompson, and Whitney Wolfe are Junior Chairs.

The stellar honorary committee includes Nati Abascal, Jonathan Adler, Gustavo Arango, Jose Solis Betancourt, Tory Burch, Francisco Costa, Christian Cota, Simon Doonan, Alex Gonzales, Agnes Gund, Susan Gutfreund, Carolina Herrera, Candy Pratts Price, Narciso Rodriguez, Ralph Rucci, Angel Sanchez, Richard Turley, Donatella Versace, Michael Vollbracht, Diane von Furstenberg, and Sarah Wolfe.

At the event, Candy Pratts Price, the Executive Fashion Director of Style.com, even approved of Antwan's get up, which we were all quite happy about!

The evening’s goal was to raise one million dollars, a first for El Museo’s Galas. At the end of the night the gala had raised over $850,000, just short of their goal, when the museum board president Carmen Ana Uanue announced she would be donating $3 million to El Museo's expansion campaign.

El Museo 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 in fall 2009.

[El Museo 2008]