Whitney Museum of American Art will Host Annual Art Party with a DJ set by MGMT

Photograph by Matthew Carasella

The Whitney Museum of American Art’s annual Art Party returns on Tuesday, January 30, 2024, with indie pop duo MGMT DJ’ing the event. Hosted by the Museum’s Whitney Contemporaries membership group, Art Party is a celebrated cornerstone of New York’s arts and philanthropy calendar. Young patrons, emerging artists, and guests from the worlds of art, fashion, business, philanthropy, and entertainment are invited for a botanical-themed evening of cocktails, music, exclusive exhibition viewing, and more.

Whitney Contemporaries Edward Barsamian, Steven Beltrani, and Micaela Erlanger will co-chair the 2024 Whitney Art Party. Artists Natalie Ball and Kambui Olujimi will also serve as co-chairs. Alexander Hankin will serve as the benefit committee chair.

From 9 pm to 12:30 am, guests are welcome to enjoy a botanical-themed evening of dancing, craft cocktails and signature mocktails, and exclusive access to the museum’s galleries. Guests will also enjoy a special first look at Harold Cohen: AARON, which explores the foundational stages of AI in artmaking, before the exhibition opens to the public. Drinks, music, and dancing will take place on the ground floor in the Kenneth C. Griffin Hall with sipping tequila provided by Casa Dragones. Samantha Urbani will DJ an opening set, followed by MGMT from 9:30 pm to 12:30 am.

The evening is made possible by Aesop and Cynthia Rowley. The cascading fresh floral arrangements are beautifully designed by female-founded creative agency East Olivia.

Proceeds from the Art Party provide critical support to the Whitney’s renowned Independent Study Program (ISP). Founded in 1968, ISP is one of the country’s leading postgraduate programs in studio art, curatorial studies, and critical studies. The program furthers the Whitney’s mission to support living artists throughout their careers.

WHEN

Tuesday, January 30, 2024 9 pm–12:30 am

WHERE

Whitney Museum of American Art 99 Gansevoort Street
New York, NY 10014

WHO

Art Party is hosted by the Whitney Contemporaries, a group of young leaders and arts patrons who play an active role in fulfilling the Whitney’s critical mission to support American art.

BENEFIT COMMITTEE Chair

Alexander Hankin

Committee

Samantha Brand, Drew Butler, Adam Fields, Leah Glimcher, Flora Irving, Molly Krause, Ashley Longshore, Sydney Sadick, Catherine Smith Licari

HOST COMMITTEE

Ephraim Asili, Peter Burr, Jack James Busa (The Muses), Family Style, Lola Flash, Marty Harper, Mary Manning, Rachel Rossin, Clarissa Tossin, Devon Walker, Daniel Walters (The Muses)

WHITNEY CONTEMPORARIES Co-Chairs

Micaela Erlanger, Adam Fields

Trustee Liaison

Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo

Executive Committee

Fred Baba, Michael Carl, Jessica Gersh, Alexander Hankin, Molly Krause, Beth Kurteson, Suzanna Lee, Heather Ripley, Nikhil Shah, Catherine Smith Licari.

TICKETS

Art Party Ticket: $250 ($200 for Whitney Contemporaries members). Admits one.

Art Party Artist Sponsor: $500 ($450 for Whitney Contemporaries members). Artist Sponsor ticket purchases allow the Whitney to extend complimentary tickets to artists of its choosing and ticket buyers will receive VIP entry.

Whitney Contemporaries Membership + 2024 Art Party Ticket: $750. Admits one and includes one annual membership ($1,000 value).

Whitney Contemporaries Membership + Two 2024 Art Party Tickets: $950. Admits two and includes annual membership ($1,250 value).

Tickets are required. All attendees must be 21 years or older and may be required to provide a valid ID for admission. Tickets are nonrefundable and tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

More information about tickets is available on whitney.org.

ABOUT THE WHITNEY

The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.

ABOUT MGMT

MGMT was formed by Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden in 2001 while at Wesleyan University. Since their first release, the EP Time To Pretend in 2005, MGMT have released four critically acclaimed albums: Oracular Spectacular (2008), Congratulations (2010), MGMT (2013), and Little Dark Age (2018). In December 2019, the band released the new songs “In The Afternoon” and “As You Move Through the World”.

Since October 2020, MGMT’s “Little Dark Age” has become a viral sensation, being used by millions of users via TikTok and is currently the band’s biggest streaming song.

MGMT’s long-awaited new album Loss Of Life, produced by MGMT and Patrick Wimberly, will be released February 23, 2024 on Mom + Pop. The first two singles “Mother Nature” and “Bubblegum Dog” from the forthcoming album were released in late 2023.

Oracular Spectacular was named album of the year by NME and was one of Rolling Stone’s top 20 albums of the decade, while selling over 2 million copies worldwide and producing the hits “Time To Pretend,” “Electric Feel,” and “Kids”.

MGMT have received multiple Grammy Award nominations and have performed at festivals around the world from Glastonbury to Bonnaroo to Lollapalooza to Coachella.

In 2011, MGMT performed an original piece of music at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City to accompany a retrospective of the artist Maurizio Catalan and in 2012 they performed with the legendary Joshua Light Show at NYU’s Skirball Center.

In 2023, the band played Oracular Spectacular in full at Just Like Heaven festival in Los Angeles, complete with paper mache versions of Andrew and Ben, a children’s choir, and old footage.