On Monday, April 9, La Maison Française of New York University will hold a gala benefit to celebrate its 50th anniversary and to raise funds for its program of lectures, conferences, symposia, art exhibits, films, concerts, theater, and special events. Created in 1957, La Maison Française is the public face of NYU’s Center for French Civilization and Culture.
At the benefit La Maison Française will honor internationally renowned French architect Jean Nouvel, whose first New York City project is nearing completion. Nouvel will receive the Medal of the Center for French Civilization and Culture in recognition of his architectural creations, and his ongoing dialogue within the urban context, with the most compelling aesthetic, philosophical, cinematic, and technological innovations.
Nouvel will speak about his work, which ranges from the Institute du Monde Arabe, the Fondation Cartier, and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, to the Lyon Opera, the new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and recent buildings in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and Qatar.
The gala benefit, which will take place in NYU’s Kimmel Center, located at 60 Washington Square South (at LaGuardia Place), opens at 6:30 p.m. with a Champagne reception. Dinner and presentations follow at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $750 ($500 tax deductible) and $1000 ($750 tax deductible), and seating is limited. For further information, contact Francine Goldenhar, director of La Maison Française, at 212.998.8751.
The benefit co-chairs are Kathleen Begala and Yves-André Istel, Mary Sharp Cronson, Janine and Tom Hill, and Carl Adams of Cartier, Inc. Honorary patrons of the event include H.E. Ambassador Jean-David Levitte; French Consul General François Delattre; Karen Rispal, cultural counselor of the French Embassy; and NYU President John Sexton.