Upcoming Nightlight: El Museo Gala Honors Placido Domingo and Tony Bechara Barbara Walters Master of Ceremonies Thursday, May 27, 2010 Renee & Alvaro Domingo, Yaz & Valentin Hernandez Gala Chairs

El Museo del Barrio annual Gala will be held on Thursday, May 27, at Cipriani 42nd Street, in New York City. This year’s event will honor Plácido Domingo with a lifetime artistic achievement award. Tony Bechara, the museum’s long-serving board chairman will be honored with a special leadership award. The master of ceremonies Barbara Walters will not be able to attend the Gala due to the fact she will be recovering from Surgery. Oscar de la Renta will instead be presenting Placido Domingo with his award. Renée and Alvaro Domingo with Yaz and Valentín Hernández are the gala chairs. The 2010 gala will also recognize the dedication and achievements of El Museo’s outgoing executive director Julián Zugazagoitia. 

The gala’s stellar honorary committee includes José Solís Betancourt, Rubén Blades, María Cornejo, Francisco Costa, Christian Cota, Benicio del Toro, Alex González, Carolina and Reinaldo Herrera, Marilyn Horne, Carlos Mota, Candy Pratts Price, Brian Reyes, Narciso Rodríguez, Angel Sánchez, and Isabel + Rubén Toledo.    

Guests expected include: John and Gaily Beinecke, Estrellita and Daniel Brodsky, Claudia Cisneros, Barbaralee Diamonstein and Carl Spielvogel, Olga and Tony Duke, Mr. and Mrs. J. Pepe Fanjul, Agnes Gund, Donald and Adelle Hall, Mariana and George Kaufman, Alexandra Lebenthal and Jay Diamond, Ambassador John L. Loeb and Ms. Sharon Handler, Gillian and Sylvester Miniter, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Liz and Jeff Peek, Laura and Richard Parsons, Barbara and Donald Tober, Joseph and Carmen Ana Unanue, and many more… 

Always one of the most exciting tickets in the city’s social calendar, the evening begins with cocktails at seven o’clock followed by dinner and dancing at eight o’clock. Traditionally a very festive event where guests linger late into the evening, the party is a grand occasion that raises significant funding for El Museo’s art education and community outreach programs. It also has come to symbolize the pride Latin Americans, Latinos, and non-Latino friends and colleagues in New York take in their cherished museum. Guests are flying in from South America, Caribbean, and Europe in order to attend. This year’s goal is to raise one million dollars. 

About Plácido Domingo: born in Spain, raised from age eight in Mexico, he is a world-renowned, multifaceted artist, recognized as one of the finest and most influential singing actors in the history of opera. He is also a lauded conductor and a major force as an opera administrator. But most admirable of all is the enormous good he has accomplished through his prodigious gifts. Mr. Domingo has dedicated himself to the support and education of young artists across the world, and has raised millions of dollars for the victims of Mexico’s devastating earthquake in 1985 and natural disasters in Guerrero, Yucatán, El Salvador, and New Orleans.  

About Tony Bechara: an acclaimed artist represented in numerous private and public collections, he is featured in museum exhibitions around the world. El Museo honors him at this year’s Gala for his brilliance as a leader. During more than a decade as Chair of El Museo’s Board of Trustees, Mr. Bechara has guided the institution as it evolved into a thriving institution with a stellar international reputation.  

About Julián Zugazagoitia: This year’s Gala is the last that he will attend as Director and CEO of El Museo. After a remarkable eight-year tenure, he will soon take the reins at the prestigious Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City.  The Board and staff of El Museo wishes him continued success. 

Limited Edition Print: the international renowned artist Enoc Perez has created a limited edition print, to be unveiled at the Gala, which will be sold to benefit El Museo. This beautiful new work will be printed by the Lower East Side Printshop. Born in Puerto Rico and based in New York, Perez layers pictures selected from postcards, downloaded images, or his own Polaroid’s, by pressing paper backed with wet oil stick monochromes against a canvas or paper, and drawing on its surface. In 2007 Perez was the focus of a major survey exhibition at MoCA at Goldman Warehouse, Miami. He has exhibited in museums and galleries in the Americas and Europe, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy; The UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut; and El Museo de Barrio, New York.   

About El Museo del Barrio: El Museo del Barrio, New York’s leading Latino cultural institution, welcomes visitors of all backgrounds to discover the artistic landscape of Latino, Caribbean, and Latin American cultures. Their richness is represented in El Museo’s wide-ranging collections and exhibitions, complemented by film, literary, visual and performing arts series, cultural celebrations, and educational programs.  A dynamic artistic, cultural, and community gathering place, El Museo is a center of Latino pride on New York’s museum mile.