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"NEW YORK \u2014 Eat. Drink. Bid. That was what arts organization&amp;nbsp;Independent Curators International&amp;nbsp;encouraged guests to do by posting those three words in the program and on the walls at its 2012 fall benefit and auction at New York\u2019s Prince George Ballroom. And that they did, eating mini burgers and dumplings, drinking libations poured peculiarly from a small keg strapped on to a server\u2019s back, and bidding on works by such artists as Olaf Breuning,&amp;nbsp;Ellsworth Kelly, and&amp;nbsp;Laurel Nakadate.Model&amp;nbsp;Karlie Kloss, artists&amp;nbsp;Rashid Johnson and Marina Abramovic, and curator&amp;nbsp;Neville Wakefield&amp;nbsp;were among the personalities on hand to honor Nav Haq, curator of MuHKA, Antwerp; and Jay Sanders, curator and curator of the performing arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art, with the Independent Vision Curatorial Award. Philanthropist and entrepreneur&amp;nbsp;Dasha Zhukova&amp;nbsp;received the 2012 Leo Award for her innovative work founding&amp;nbsp;Garage Center for Contemporary Culture&amp;nbsp;in Moscow.\u201CSpreading art to the Russian public has not been met without resistance \u2014 but through education programs, exhibitions, and our kids workshops we\u2019ve been able to engage an audience from 8 to 80, and I think that the success of these initiatives is deeply rooted in the ability of our staff to tap into the global curatorial dialogue,\u201D said Zhukova in her acceptance speech.Curator and&amp;nbsp;Serpentine Gallery&amp;nbsp;director&amp;nbsp;Hans Ulrich Obrist, who presented Haq and Sanders with their awards, spoke to ARTINFO about the two honorees. \u201CWhat they both have in common \u2014 Jay and Nav \u2014 is that they work very closely with artists and I think that\u2019s the most important thing about curating,\u201D he said.Obrist mentioned that he had visited the hurricane-ravaged Rockaways with&amp;nbsp;PS1 MoMA&amp;nbsp;director and&amp;nbsp;MoMA&amp;nbsp;curator at large&amp;nbsp;Klaus Biesenbach&amp;nbsp;earlier that day. \u201CIt\u2019s really devastating,\u201D said Obrist. \u201CIt\u2019s much more extreme than what we see in the newspapers.\u201DSanders discussed the importance of ICI with ARTINFO. \u201CI grew up in Oregon, in Portland in the early \u201990s, and I see these world-class, sophisticated exhibitions of new art and new ideas, and I wouldn\u2019t have had the perspective to know this \u2014 but they were ICI shows that were touring,\u201D he said. \u201CIt\u2019s a way for really interesting art, and ideas, and critical discourse to permeate and disseminate \u2014 and it\u2019s invaluable.\u201DClick on the slideshow to see images from the ICI fall benefit and auction.[content:advertisement-center]&amp;nbsp;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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