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Russell Simmons, Danny Simmons And Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation Raises $1.5 Million At Ninth Annual ART FOR LIFE East Hampton Benefit Gala

*In order to do justice to this wonderful event, I must first set up for you the fairytale ambience in which Russell Simmons' East Hampton estate was transformed into to form a true "Midsummer Nights Dream thanks to visionary experts Bruce Sutka and Sukta International on a breezy Saturday mid-evening, July 21.

“The theme ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ brought inspiration and made me think how a creative interpretation of a dream could fuse imagination, fantasy and nature,” described Sutka. “In my mind’s eye, I envisioned a world where everything seemed of gigantic scale, a place where statues come to life and where adults turned into children once more for just one evening.”

Guests played a big part in this enchanted evening donning purple and violet clothing in keeping with this year’s color theme, “Shades of Violet,” and made for great decorative pieces on Simmons’ palatial grounds which were turned into a virtual magical wonderland filled with gnomes, fairies, trees, oracles, and creatures of nature. These beguiling characters were donated by TEN31 Productions.

This event is one of the most sought after tickets of A-1 Hampton events and one of the most profitable. This year’s Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation’s Ninth Annual ART FOR LIFE East Hampton benefit gala sold out and raised a record $1.5 Million in support of providing arts education to underserved New York City youth, defying the odds in this economic downturn reported to be affecting most fundraisers.

In his cheerful greetings, Danny Simmons told the keyed up capacity crowd, “Fourteen years ago we did our first fundraiser event in Manhattan and raised $250,000. Today, we walked in to this event over $1 million dollars strong, and will see even more results after the online charity auction closes. We've come a long way!”

New York Governor David Paterson congratulated the Simmons dynasty for their generous support of the arts and the important role ART FOR LIFE is playing in keeping art alive by addressing the necessity of arts education.

“Throughout history, governments around the world have supported the arts because they knew its importance,” Gov. Paterson stated. “Here, in America, whenever government has an economic problem, the first thing they do is cut the arts and culture programs. The second thing they do is cut the youth services programs.” Then, to the cheer and adulation of the crown, he concluded, “I don’t know if you got the memo, but there’s a new sheriff in town!”

Russell was visibly elated and pumped up over Governor Paterson’s remarks picking up where the governor left off. “Even in this economic climate, it is clear our supporters understand the importance art plays in a young person's life,” he said. “I think Governor Paterson said it best when he made the point that anyone with a young child can see the critical role expressing themselves through art and creativity plays in their development. The imagination is everything and the cultivation of creativity is the most important thing you can do for a child. We were thrilled so many old and new friends came out and supported this important cause and helped us raise more money than ever for the over 50 art programs Rush Philanthropic supports.”

Every year the event honors “generous givers” and iconic model Christy Turlington Burns, founder of Turly, Inc. and the Christy Turlington Foundation; Patrice Motsepe of African Rainbow Minerals, one South Africa’s leading mining entrepreneurs and one of the richest men in the world and wife Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe, a medical doctor, businesswoman and humanitarian; Frederick Iseman, Caxton-Iseman; Arnold L. Lehman and Norman M. Feinberg of the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Brett Ratner, RAT Entertainment, were all this year’s gala honorees.

Grammy® nominated R&B artist, Tamia and her husband, NBA star-athlete Grant Hill served as honorary chairs. Ted Alemayhu, executive chairman and CEO, US Doctors for Africa; Frances Hayward; Drs. Yasin Khan and Elizabeth Khan MD; Brenda D. Neal, senior vice president, wealth management, Smith Barney; Vivi Nevo, president, NV Investments, R. Donahue & Katrina Peebles, The Peebles Corporation; and David Tisch, managing member, LSV Financial served as event chairs. CNN’s Soledad O’Brien hosted the fundraising event gala.

This year’s dinner menu was one of the best ever! Catered by Ronnie Davis with Chris Harkness, serving as executive chef, the captivating dinner under a cavernous tent was created by Great Performances. Guests dinned on an international menu that included mouth-watering, delicious Tuscan fried chicken prepared in white beans and peppers, succulent boneless barbecued short ribs of beef accompanied by Jalapeno grit cake, and lobster martini.

A live Charity Buzz auction conducted by Simon de Pury, Phillips de Pury & Co., followed dinner and the bons vivants had a plethora of lavish items to bid on including artist Shepard Fairey’s Obama HOPE collage painting (up to $108,000); a tennis lesson with Serena Williams and her Wimbledon racket (up to $22,000); and a happy birthday phone call from Grammy winning artist John Legend (up to $5,000).

According to events specialist and publicist for the event, JLM PR, Inc. helmed by Jody Miller, the record breaking fundraiser is still not completely tallied, as the online ART FOR LIFE Charity Buzz auction continues until 2pm EST on July 31. Other online auction items still available include celebrity experiences from Donna Karan, George Clooney, Tyra Banks, Ellen Degeneres, Petra Nemcova, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys and more. Also fetching top bids are top designers Angel Sanchez, Marc Jacobs, Christian Dior, Prada, Gucci, Lorraine Schwartz, Jeri Cohen Fine Jewelery, Giuseppe Zanotti, Ana Reign and Rachel Roy who donated special items to this year’s ART FOR LIFE “Dream Closet.”

Throughout the evening DJ M.O.S. kept the party spirit on high spinning pulsating dance beats right up to the closing number featuring Ed Lover on the mic. Lover got the partygoers up and out of their cushioned seats to create their own “Soul Train line” and then kept the music going as revelers danced out of the tent and over to the gift depot to pick up a lovely swag bag before heading out to their waiting limousines or to pick up their valet parked cars.

ART FOR LIFE East Hampton is Rush Philanthropic’s primary annual fundraising effort to help support thousands of underserved New York children. Proceeds from the event benefit over 50 New York City non-profit organizations, which offer education programming in all disciplines of the arts, as well as the Foundation’s own visual arts education programs.

This year’s beneficiaries included Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, who offer visual, performing and literary arts, arts education and artists’ programs, Marquis Studios, who inspire a passion for learning by bringing the arts into schools, and the dance troupe STREB, a youth focused dance studio treated the crowd to an electrifying performance of dance and acrobatics during the cocktail hour.

Celebrities, socialites, arts patrons and friends from the entertainment and financial community who made up the capacity crowd included Aretha Franklin, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Gayle King, Padma Lakshmi, Christy Turlington Burns & Ed Burns, Jill & Bobby Zarin, Ramona & Mark Singer and The Countess LuAnn de Lesseps (all from “The Real Housewives of NYC”), Lorraine Bracco, Al Roker & Deborah Roberts, Sante D’Orazio, Ruth Bowen & Billy Bryant, Lyor Cohen, Alan Patricof, Kevin Liles, Kelly Bensimon, Tracey Edmonds, Erika & Antonio “L.A.” Reid, Kehinde Wiley, Tracy Mourning, R. Couri Hay, Curtis Martin, Gerri DeVard & Gregg Smith, Marvet Britto, Flo Anthony, Crystal McCrary Anthony & Raymond J. McGuire, Sharon Lopez Rhoden and many more turned out in support of this year’s fundraising effort.

Also special to the ART FOR LIFE gala is a featured artist. This year’s artist was abstract painter Ed Clark who donated an original piece, of which Platinum Easel Table patrons received a signed limited edition print. Each year, three youth groups are also selected as the event’s Featured Beneficiaries.

This year’s ART FOR LIFE supporters included Maybach Mercedes-Benz (silver sponsor), Smartwater (silver sponsor), HSBC (valet sponsor) and Philips de Pury & Company (auction sponsor). Also Hamptons Magazine and Hampton.com (media partners), GM (staff ground travel partner) and City Year (volunteers’ partners). Kudos to Derrick Adams and Lucille Blair (art auction chairs) and Tybie Etoy Dotson, (luxury auction chair) for a job well done. (Photos: Jerritt Clark)