And the Guild Hall 2018 Honorees Are . . .
The Guild Hall Academy of the Arts has selected its slate of honorees for 2018. They are Audrey Flack for visual arts, Gail Sheehy for literary arts, and Harris Yulin for performing arts. This year’s recipient of the special award for leadership and philanthropic endeavors will go to Sheri Sandler. The awards will be presented at a dinner at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan on March 5.
Ms. Flack, who was a young woman when she first started hanging out with the artists who frequented the Cedar Bar and the Artists Club such as Philip Pavia, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning, started out as an Abstract Expressionist but moved on to Photorealism in the late 1960s. Her Photorealist paintings were most recently seen at a Parrish Art Museum show devoted to the style last year. She also works in sculpture and plays in the History of Art Band, which will perform at the dinner. David Brigham, the president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, will present the award.
An author of 17 books, including the landmark work “Passages,” Ms. Sheehy started out as a journalist in the 1960s and ’70s, with many of her articles turning into books. She has been a writer for Vanity Fair since the 1980s. Locally, she was one of the originators of the Sag Harbor Initiative in 1987, a symposium devoted to the examination of major social issues of the day. Her award will be presented by Tom Wolfe, a fellow pioneer of New Journalism in the 1960s.
A distinguished stage, television, and film actor, Harris Yulin has participated in many Guild Hall theatrical productions, including last year’s “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?” Alec Baldwin, who worked with Mr. Yulin on a stage reading of “Gross Points” last summer, will serve as presenter.
Ms. Sandler is on the board of directors of the Ackerman Institute for the Family, among other boards, and has her own family foundation named after her mother, the Reba Judith Sandler Foundation, which provides direct services to abused women and children.
G.E. Smith, who is organizing a summer concert series devoted to guitarists, will perform, as will Ms. Flack’s bluegrass band. Andrea Grover, Guild Hall’s director, said the entertainment component will focus on the award winners as well as highlight the coming season.
The evening begins at 6 and will end around 10. Tickets for the dinner begin at $1,500, with $500 tickets available for those ages 21 to 40. Young patrons have also been invited to cocktails only at $100 per person. Tickets can be purchased on the Guild Hall website or by calling the special events department.