NEW YORK — The motif of this year’s American Friends of the Israel Museum Annual Gala was eloquent and simple: architecture.
The double rooms of the Waldorf-Astoria banquet hall were packed last Monday night with supporters of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem who gathered for the organization’s annual fund-raising effort.
Barbara Lane, president of the AFIM, explained the event’s appeal, which attracted more than 680 guests: “It’s like being home in Israel, but at the Waldorf in New York. It’s a very strange thing, but it works.”
The event is a tribute to the support and community of the AFIM, and a successful means of generating funds — the gala raised $2.7 million — for the museum. In addition, the party highlighted the AFIM’s Campus Renewal Project, a $50 million effort to integrate all of the facilities surrounding and including the museum.
The celebration was particularly meaningful for museum director James Snyder, who began his decade-long tenure after an inspirational visit to the Israel Museum campus. “I was speechless,” he said. “I became involved after that one visit.”
With the design of architect James Carpenter, the Campus Renewal Project is officially set to begin in 2007 and be completed in 2010. The main concept was to find a way “to reorganize the museum to improve the access to the gallery and the building and the view,” Carpenter said.
The Architecture Gala set itself apart from previous benefits because the AFIM has “finally gotten to the level with images and models [of the Campus Renewal] that everybody’s really aware of the full scope of the project and what the direction of the night is,” Carpenter said. As a result, “We’ve had a lot of support.”
In recognition of the project, the hotel was filled with renowned architects, from World Trade Center Memorial architect Michael Arad to Richard Meier.