The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Museum Ball, Oct. 26, Montreal
Since its inception some 64 years ago, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ biggest annual fundraiser, The Museum Ball, has been considered a highlight on the city’s fall social calendar. This year, funds shy of $2 million were raised to support The Museum Transforms Lives, the MMFA’s $100 million campaign, which will see the organization undertake a handful of key projects including the transformation of some of its spaces and changes which aim to better promote their 50,000 piece collection and broaden the appeal of their already impressive public programs. The evening, with co-chairs Abe Adham, chair of the Quebec Market at TD Bank Financial Group and Deborah K. Orida the president and CEO of PSP Investments at the helm, took on a baroque theme, a nod to the museum’s just-closed exhibition Saint, Sinner, Lovers and Fools: Three Hundred Years of Flemish Masterpieces. On display throughout the themed dining salons were more than two dozen works from the MMFA collection by artists including Kent Monkman, Janet Werner, Pierre Dorion, Françoise Lacasse and Guillaume Simoneau, all of whom were in attendance. Also there among the 1000 guests at the sold out ball: The Honourable Mélanie Joly, minister of foreign affairs; businessman Pierre-Karl Péladeau and his partner Pascale Bourbeau; Montreal International Jazz Festival’s programming director Maurin Auxéméry and Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie; Jo-Anne Duchesne, director if the MMFA Foundation and Henry Mizrahi, who chairs the MMFA foundation’s board of trustees; the museum’s chief curator Mary-Dailey Desmarais and of course its director Stéphane Aquin.
Elisapie and Maurin Auxéméry, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Museum Ball, on Oct. 26.Frédéric Faddoul/Supplied
William McLean, Deborah K. Orida, Yolande James and Andrew Jackson.Frédéric Faddoul/Supplied
Jo-Anne Duchesne and Manuel Mathieu.Frédéric Faddoul/Supplied
Pierre-Karl Péladeau, Pascale Bourbeau, Julie-Katerine Turcotte and Marc Parent.Frédéric Faddoul/Supplied
Mel Charlot and Stanley Milfort.Frédéric Faddoul/Supplied
Vancouver Chinatown Gala, Oct. 29, Vancouver
Founded in 2011, The Vancouver Chinatown Foundation was formed as a means of honouring the Chinese culture and community established in Vancouver more than 100 years ago. On the eve of Oct. 29, the organization’s Autumn Gala was held, a dinner that saw north of $700,000 raised, funds which will support the ongoing mission to reinvigorate Vancouver’s iconic Chinatown and storied Hastings. The gala also served as a chance to laud the opening of Bob & Michael’s Place, the Foundation’s newest housing initiative which hopes to address the many public health and socioeconomic challenges which face this part of the city. Held at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, the evening began with cocktails followed by dinner, and later an auction. Out to support the effort were philanthropists Yoshiko Karasawa and Michael Audain; Dr. Henry Fung, one of the organization’s devoted trustees; regional president of RBC, Martin Thibodeau (the bank served as the presenting sponsor); Music executive Sam Feldman and philanthropist Darlene Poole who served as gala co-chairs; and of course Carol Lee, founder and chair of the board of directors of the The Vancouver Chinatown Foundation.
Fereshteh Zeineddin and Aubrey Smethurst at the Vancouver Chinatown Gala, on Oct. 29.Butter Studios/Supplied
Yoshiko Karasawa and Michael Audain.Butter Studios/Supplied
Lily Lee.Butter Studios/Supplied
Sam Feldman, Carol Lee and Darlene Poole.Butter Studios/Supplied
Fred Lee and Sophie Lui.Butter Studios/Supplied