Socrates Sculpture Park 2023 Fall Gala - Socrates Sculpture Park

On Thursday September 14th, more than 300 of us gathered together to honor three Socrates Heavyweights – The Fortune Society’s Creative Arts Program; Ivana Mestrovic; and Guadalupe Maravilla – as well as our year-round community of artists, educators, youth, and collaborators who make it all happen.

We’d like to extend our thanks and appreciation to the Socrates Board and Staff, as well as our Gala Steering Committee, and our presenters for the evening: John Hatfield, Shaun Leonardo, and Shellyne Rodriguez.

Photo Album Here —>

Limited Artist’s Edition For Sale

Thank you also to Mary Mattingly for creating Neap Tide, a limited edition piece to benefit Socrates Sculpture Park. This piece, part of the Salt Moons series, began during Mattingly’s installation of her exhibition Ebb of a Spring Tide commissioned by the Park for its Spring 2023 exhibition and is available for purchase here:

Mary Mattingly
Neap Tide, 2023
From the series Salt Moons, Ebb of a Spring Tide
Dye-sublimation print on aluminum, 12 x 12 inches

Ed. 12, 5 A.P.’s
Created exclusively for the 2023 Fall Gala
Price: $3,000

TO PURCHASE VISIT HERE —->

Or contact Sarah Frazier, Director of Development & Communications at sf@socratessculpturepark.org / 718-956-1819 x102

Neap Tide captures a unique sculptural process achieved by immersing a steel disk into the saltwater of the East River, meticulously observing and documenting its gradual transformation. As it became encased in salt, this sculpture was photographed to symbolize tidal and lunar phases, particularly the half-full appearance associated with neap tides during the first and third quarter moons. This photograph is part of the Salt Moons series, which began during Mattingly’s installation of her exhibition Ebb of a Spring Tide. Commissioned by the Park for its Spring 2023 exhibition, the project drew inspiration from the nearby estuary and employed repurposed materials to construct an immersive sculptural ecosystem, revealing the interconnectedness of time, water, and life cycles.

ABOUT OUR HONOREES

Guadalupe Maravilla

Guadalupe Maravilla is a transdisciplinary visual artist, choreographer, and healer. At the age of eight, Maravilla was part of the first wave of unaccompanied, undocumented children to arrive at the United States border in the 1980s as a result of the Salvadoran Civil War. As an acknowledgement of his own migratory past, Maravilla grounds his practice in the historical and contemporary contexts of immigrant culture, particularly those belonging to Latinx communities.

Maravilla currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. He was awarded a 2019 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and a 2015 Emerging Artist Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. He has exhibited and performed in major museums, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, and many more.

Ivana Mestrovic

Ivana Mestrovic started working with Mark di Suvero in 1987, just 5 months after Socrates’s first opening, and directs his studio, Spacetime C.C.. Mestrovic has been involved with Socrates Sculpture Park for nearly as long, and plays an integral role in its strategic planning, financing, development and pancake breakfasts. In addition to her service at Socrates, she also serves on the board of the little OPERA THEATRE of NY.

Ivana is a poet, whose work has appeared in Evening Street Review, The Midwest Quarterly and Night Picnic. She is the granddaughter of Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, who was the first living artist to receive a one-person show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Fortune Society’s Creative Arts Program

The overriding mission of The Fortune Society is to support successful re-entry from incarceration and promote alternatives to incarceration, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities through a “one-stop-shop” model of service delivery designed to support the myriad intersecting needs of community members. Current services include: housing, education, employment, outpatient mental health and substance use treatment, health services (including HIV and AIDS services), family services, food and nutrition programming, discharge planning/case management, benefits access, creative arts, care management, a peer-driven recovery center (the NEST), lifetime aftercare, policy and advocacy through their David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy, and research through the Center for Research, Inquiry and Social Justice. 

Since our organization’s founding in 1967, Fortune has been committed to using the restorative capacities of art and art making to call for an end to mass incarceration in the United States, to support successful reentry, and to contribute to more just collective futures. The Creative Arts at The Fortune Society is more than a program — they are a community. They align with radical hope and believe in the healing and transformative powers of imagination and creativity.

Thank you to our Supporters

Thank you to our supporters for helping us raised crucial funds for our artistic and educational programming:

HONORARY CHAIR

Veri di Suvero

STEERING COMMITTEE

Jamie Bennett and Udai Soni

Anita Contini and Steve van Anden

Suzy Delvalle

Robert F. Goldrich

Amy Hau

Steve Henry and Philip Shneidman

Shaun Leonardo

Deidrea Miller

Wendy Olsoff

Penny Pilkington

Leaders

Agnes Gund

Mark di Suvero

Benefactors

Bloomberg Philanthropies

Paula Cooper Gallery

Sponsors

The Sidney E. Frank Foundation

Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation

Jill and Peter Kraus

Lambent Foundation

The Leon Levy Foundation

Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger

Joel Shapiro and Ellen Phelan

Harriet and Frank Stella

Patrons

Jayne and Leonard Abess

Jody and John Arnhold

Vivien and David Collens

Emme and Jonathan Deland

Dun-Rite Specialized

J. Paul Getty Trust

Robert F. Goldrich

Goldstone Family Foundation

Phyllis Lee Levin

Anna and Peter Levin

Lewitt Collection

Richard and Ronay Menschel

The Ralph E. Ogden Foundation

Elizabeth Sidamon-Eristoff and Hunter Lewis

Stuart Match Suna

Supporters

Anne and Greg Avis

Jamie Bennett and Udai Soni

Rebecca Carter and Demetris Giannoulis

Christie’s

Anita Contini and Steve Van Anden

Lucas Cooper and Jane Benson

Monroe Denton and Bob Fisher

Katie Dixon and Richard Fleming

Susan Freedman

Freund Family Foundation

Tiffany Bell and Richard Gluckman

Neil Hamamoto

John Hatfield and Amy Wolf

Amy Hau and Fred Hansen

Steven Henry and Philip Shneidman

Elizabeth Kelley Karpowicz and Terrence Karpowicz

Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder

Dorothy Lichtenstein

Risk Strategies

Allen Murabayashi

Penelope Pilkington and Wendy Osoff

Alison Saar

Manny and Jackie Silverman

Silberman Zaretsky PC

It was a remarkable evening and we are incredibly grateful to the following friends, neighbors, and purveyors who helped us put on an exceptional event:

Catering

R. Cano

Cocktails

Diamond Dogs

Beer

Heart of Gold, Atmosphere Brewing (N/A)

Wine

Sanford’s

Entertainment

Astoria Mystics Circle
David Lee Jones Quartet
with support by Jazz Foundation of America
DJ Vinyl Richie

Photography

Kamila Harris