The Hamptons Busy Benefit Season
It’s time to get out the calendars and save the dates for the South Fork’s annual round of summer benefits. Beginning with Planned Parenthood on Sunday and finishing up with the Box Art Auction for East End Hospice at a yet to be determined date in September, the season is full of opportunities to socialize and help out good causes. The following is by no means an exhaustive list of some of the larger events taking place this year; events will also be listed in The Star’s weekly benefits calendar as they draw nearer and all organizations have more information on their websites.
For home design and garden lovers, next weekend will have two delights. The Animal Rescue Fund Designer Showhouse and Sale will showcase several prominent designers and the donated treasures available at the organization’s thrift store. A preview cocktail party will be held on May 30 with tickets available at $250 and $150. All sales from the designers’ rooms will also benefit ARF. And the Southampton Historical Museum will have a house tour next weekend (a related article appears in the Habitat section of the paper).
The East End’s museums and art centers try to avoid scheduling conflicts for their annual fund-raising events, but there are only so many Saturdays between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Both the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill and Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor will celebrate on July 11, but in years past there have been enough philanthropic partygoers for both events to sell out.
The Parrish will follow its usual format with cocktails at 6:30 p.m., dinner at 7:30, and an after-party at 10. Some 600 people will enjoy dinner by Olivier Cheng Catering on the museum’s outdoor terrace before repairing to the theater to dance to Coleman Music. Dinner tickets start at $1,500.
Bay Street’s event will take place under a tent on Long Wharf and in the theater itself where, from 6 to 7:30, awards will be given to former Representative Tim Bishop and Joe Pintauro, the playwright, and a premiere concert reading of the first act of the stage adaptation of “The Prince of Egypt” will be presented. Cocktails in the tent will follow at 7:30, with dinner set for 8. Tickets start at $425.
LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton will take flight On Gossamer Wings, as its party is titled, on July 18, and diaphanous attire will be appropriate. Kiki Smith, whose bronze sculptures are on view, will be honored. After cocktails and dinner, guests can join the “silent disco and dance party,” which involves the use of headphones in order not to disturb neighbors. An auction will be available at Paddle 8 in early July. Tickets start at $1,000.
The Watermill Center’s benefit and auction, somewhat cryptically titled Circus of Stillness . . . The Power Over Wild Beasts, will happen on July 25, with cocktails from 6 to 8 and dinner to follow. As usual, installations and performances by the center’s artists-in-residence will take place throughout the more than eight-acre property. Cocktail party tickets are $500, $650 after May 31. The entire evening can be enjoyed for $1,250 and up.
Last but not least among the local arts centers will be Guild Hall, whose party, scheduled for Aug. 7 — a Friday — will celebrate its exhibition “Roy Lichtenstein: Between Sea and Sky.” A preview of the show will take place from 5 to 7. Cocktails, dinner, music, dancing, and a live art auction will happen from 8 to 11 at a private house. Cocktails-only tickets are $500; dinner tickets start at $1,200.
Benefits for charitable organizations span the summer, with the fund-raiser for Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic kicking off the season Sunday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the estate of Adam Sender in Noyac. Tickets start at $150, for those 35 and under. Individual tickets for non-millennials are $300 and up.
The Retreat’s party, billed as a Roaring ’20s Summer Soiree, will take place June 20 from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Ross School lower campus field house on Butter Lane in Bridgehampton. The flapper look will be fitting for women, and men in top hats or homburgs will pass muster.
Art for Life, another Roaring ’20s-themed benefit, will happen July 18. The celebration of Rush Philanthropic’s 20th anniversary at Fairview Farms in Bridgehampton will start with cocktails at 6, followed by dinner and the program at 7. Soledad O’Brien will host, and Dave Chappelle will be feted. Individual tickets start at $1,500.
The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund will again benefit from Super Saturday on July 25. The designer shopping extravaganza will take place from noon to 6 p.m. at Nova’s Ark Project in Bridgehampton. Tickets are $2,500 for the event, which will be hosted by Donna Karan and Kelly Ripa.
The Hamptons Paddle and Party for the Pink is a two-part benefit for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation set for Aug. 1. Those up for paddling can register in advance at hamptonspaddleforpink.org for $100. The race will begin at Havens Beach in Sag Harbor at 8 a.m. Anybody with enough energy left to party can do so at 6:30 p.m. at a private house. Tickets are $1,000 and up.
The Parrish Art Museum, ARF, and Guild Hall have garden programs lined up as fund-raisers as well. Landscape Pleasures consists of a symposium that will take place the morning of June 13, from 9 to noon at the Parrish, and a self-guided tour of gardens that will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on June 14. Tickets for both events are $225, $175 for museum members. For $350, a cocktail party at a private house on Saturday at 6 becomes part of the package.
ARF’s self-guided garden tour, which costs $85, will take place June 20 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. A cocktail party at 5 can be added for another $90.
Guild Hall’s Garden as Art tour will happen on Aug. 22. Titled Garden to Table, this year’s tour will focus on edible gardens and include estates committed to sustainable harvests of organic produce. In the morning, a panel discussion at Guild Hall moderated by Brian Halweil, editor of Edible East End, will include farmers and landscape designers. The self-guided tour will take place from noon to 5. There will also be an optional cocktail party at a private residence from 6 to 8 on Aug. 21.
Speaking of farm-to-table, there will be three food-related benefits this summer. On June 28, Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor will host a party for Spring Seedlings and Project Most, which is committed to sustaining the edible gardens and greenhouses at the Springs School and John M. Marshall Elementary School. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres from local purveyors, restaurants, and wineries will be served in the restaurant’s garden from 5 to 8 p.m. There will also be an art auction of works that will be on exhibition at the restaurant. The cost is $150.
Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack will host the James Beard Foundation’s Chefs and Champagne benefit on July 25. A V.I.P. reception will take place from 5 to 6 p.m., the main event from 6 to 8:30, and a V.I.P. after-party from 8:30 to 10. General admission, which is $275, $200 for foundation members, includes tastings, a silent auction, and gift bag. Premium admission is $375, and tables for 10, which include everything, go for $4,000.
Peconic Land Trust’s Through Farms and Fields benefit will take place on Aug. 2 at McCall Vineyard and Ranch in Cutchogue. Most details were not available at press time, but ticket prices range from $250 up.
Three prominent local organizations, Southampton Hospital, the East Hampton Library, and ARF round out the calendar. The hospital’s summer party will enliven an air-conditioned tent at the corner of Wickapogue and Old Town Road on Aug. 1. Cocktails will begin at 6:30 p.m., and dinner and dancing will follow. The news anchor Chuck Scarborough will host. Tickets, which must be purchased in advance, are $500.
Authors Night will return to the East Hampton Library on Aug. 8. The cocktail reception and book signing, which always includes an impressive roster of writers, will take place at Gardiner Farm, 36 James Lane, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Dinner parties at private houses, with authors in attendance, will begin at 8. Tickets range in price from $250 for the reception and signing to $2,500 for the entire event.
ARF’s Bow Wow Meow ball is the last of the big parties. It will happen at the adoption center in Wainscott on Aug. 15 and will include cocktails at 6:30, dinner at 7:30, and dancing. Ticket prices start at $500.
And these are only some of the many fund-raising fetes that will keep weekends lively from now through September.