Greater Boston Party Pics: Here’s to the Ladies Who Lunch!
Dispatches from the city's swankiest fundraisers: Celebrity Series' Shine! Gala, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy's "hat luncheon" and the Trustees' Party for the Sculpture Park.
Soigné cochair and board member Teri Groome, Urban Grape co-owner T.J. Douglas, financial guru Paul Belanger, and Urban Grape co-owner Hadley Douglas. / Photo by Robert Torres for Celebrity Series
The crowd was appropriately dazzling at the Shine! Gala, a black-tie benefit for the nonprofit performing-arts organization Celebrity Series. Held at the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts, the über-glittery evening began with cocktails and little nibbly things before guests entered a dining area dramatically set for sipping, supping, and socializing. Present and accounted for: cochairs Amy and Ethan d’Ablemont-Burnes and Teri Groome and Paul Belanger; purveyors of fine wines Hadley and T.J. Douglas; power broker Priscilla Douglas, Peter Wender, and incomparable branding guru Daren Bascome; mover and shaker Akiba Abaka; and one person who joked, “I know everything about the Celebrity Series. I dated a series of celebrities before I got married.”
After a surf ’n’ turf dinner, the trio Time for Three performed (prompting one guest to mutter, “They’re so good-looking, I’ve got time for four or five.”)—before DJ Chris Roxx kept the dance floor thumping into the early hours.
The evening’s best exchange: “We’ve known each other since our kids were tater tots. They went to school together.”
“But let’s not mention a year. Or even a decade.”
Musician Sherri Snow and PR powerhouse Mary Zanor. / Photo by Robert Torres for Celebrity Series
Biotech exec Ivana Magovčević-Liebisch and culinary genius Lars Liebisch with Biogen bigwig Alisha Alaimo. / Photo by Robert Torres for Celebrity Series
The heartthrob trio Time for Three. / Photo by Robert Torres for Celebrity Series
The debonair Howard Appleby with his wife, ballet booster and fitness maven Leslie Appleby. / Photo by Robert Torres for Celebrity Series
Dover denizen Chanell Dagesse, the lovely Yana Lavrova, the fashionable Renisha Silva Talbot, and breath of fresh air Lucy Santos. / Photo by Michael Blanchard
Plumage on Full Display
Affectionately known as “the hat luncheon,” Party in the Park is the signature fundraiser for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, which raises money to protect and restore Frederick Law Olmsted’s park system stretching from the Public Garden to Franklin Park, the venue for this year’s soiree. More than 500 guests turned out in their springtime finery to sip champagne and eat a delicious seasonal salad followed by striped bass while saluting honoree Gina McCarthy, the first-ever White House national climate adviser and former U.S. EPA administrator. Here’s to the ladies who lunch!
Milliner to the stars Ellie Jian. / Photo by Michael Blanchard
Business guru Michelle Hicks. / Photo by Michael Blanchard
Event cochairs Alex Ablon and Emily Derr. / Photo by Michael Blanchard
Cocktails on the terrace. / Photo by Krista Photography
Perfect Timing
The Trustees rang in summer at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln with Party for the Sculpture Park, which began with cocktails on the terrace and continued with a tented dinner. Front and center were event cochairs Antje and Sebastian Barreveld and Becky Bermont and Alex Benik, as well as honorary chair Hugh Hayden, whose work Huff and Puff is the museum’s new Art & the Landscape commission.
Cochairs Becky Bermont and Antje Barreveld flanking acting CEO Nicie Panetta. / Photo by Krista Photography
Curator Sarah Montross and the event’s honorary cochair, artist Hugh Hayden. / Photo by Krista Photography
The Trustees’ new president and CEO, Katie Theoharides. / Photo by Krista Photography
A rainbow above the dining tent. / Photo by Krista Photography
First published in the print edition of the September 2023 issue with the headline, “This Little Light O’ Mine.”
