The Whitney’s guests included Raymond McGuire, Richard Demartini, and Jim Gordon as well as former Goldmanites Robert Hurst, J. Michael Evans and Henry Cornell. Art stars included Julian Schnabel, Gregory Crewdson, Laurie Simmons, Cindy Sherman, and Fred Wilson. And Seal played the acoustic guitar as he descended the stage to walk around the tables "like a soulful troubadour," said Brooke Garber Neidich. She and Leonard Lauder, Neil Bluhm and Hurst, the man designated as honoree, were saluted on an evening that marked one year of the museum being open in its new Meatpacking District home.
Neidich’s son Jon, the downtown restaurateur (Acme, Tijuana Picnic, Happiest Hour and Slowly Shirley), made it to both Edible Schoolyard and the Whitney’s galas, making him the most enviable? Or maybe that distinction belongs to the two Edible Schoolyard guests who each paid $52,000 in the live auction to "Skip the Line," securing reservations for up to four people at eight restaurants including Noma in Copenhagen and Hartwood in Tulum, Mexico. Foodie passion like that helped the benefit raise more than $1 million.