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"SOUTHAMPTON, New York \u2014 July 14 marked Bastille Day, but in the Hamptons it wasn\u2019t the French holiday \u2013 but rather art \u2013 that was a predominant theme over the weekend. ArtHamptons, a three-day international fair, held court&amp;nbsp;at the&amp;nbsp;Sculpture Fields of Nova\u2019s Ark&amp;nbsp;in Bridgehampton and at the&amp;nbsp;Parrish Art Museum\u2019s Midsummer Party in Southampton, which took place last Saturday evening.Partygoers slogged through the notorious Hamptons traffic before arriving at the Parrish Art Museum, the oldest cultural institution on the East End, to attend the gala, which honored seven luminaries across several cultural disciplines: director/choreographer&amp;nbsp;Patricia Birch, artist&amp;nbsp;Chuck Close, author/historian&amp;nbsp;Barbara Goldsmith, interior designers&amp;nbsp;Tony Ingrao&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;Randy Kemper,&amp;nbsp;musician&amp;nbsp;G.E. Smith&amp;nbsp;(whose wife accepted his award), and choreographer&amp;nbsp;Paul Taylor. The party also served as the last summer hurrah for the museum before its new&amp;nbsp;Herzog and de Meuron&amp;nbsp;building opens on Route 27 this fall.Once inside, guests stopped to view the museum\u2019s two photography exhibitions that paid homage to its surroundings \u2013 \u201CThe Landmarks of New York\u201D and \u201CLiminal Ground:&amp;nbsp;Adam Bartos&amp;nbsp;Long Island Photographs.\u201DIngrao and Kemper, who were receiving congratulations from their friends, wore coordinating white suits.\u201CIt\u2019s the middle of summer, we wanted to show off our tans,\u201D Kemper told&amp;nbsp;ARTINFO.\u201CWe made the long journey from East Hampton to Southampton, so we thought we\u2019d be formal,\u201D chimed in Ingrao.After surveying the photographs, attendees ventured into the vast tents that were set up in the museum\u2019s grounds for cocktails and dinner.Close reminisced to us about his old friend&amp;nbsp;Yayoi Kusama, whom&amp;nbsp;he saw earlier that week.\u201CBefore I was in a wheelchair, I was there [in Tokyo in 1980] and I sprung her from the asylum and took her out on the town for the night,\u201D he told ARTINFO, before going on to talk about her happenings. \u201CShe got other people to be nude, which has always been my approach too. I don\u2019t want to be nude, I want other people to be nude.\u201DAnd what about being honored that night?\u201CAsk me after it\u2019s over,\u201D Close chuckled.In between a first course of shrimp, papaya, honeydew melon, and hearts of palm in lime cilantro sauce, and an entr\u00E9e of grilled tournedos of beef with a pur\u00E9e of potato and carrot, museum director&amp;nbsp;Terrie Sultan&amp;nbsp;addressed the swank Hamptons crowd and then presented bouquets of white flowers to the honorees.\u201CWe hope you think the Parrish Art Museum is the next great new landmark of New York,\u201D she said.The 950 guests who attended the cocktail hour, dinner, and after-party probably have faith it\u2019s in the running \u2014 their donations raised $650,000.Click on&amp;nbsp;the photo gallery&amp;nbsp;to see guests at the Parrish Art Museum Midsummer Party.[content:advertisement-center]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/813901/midsummer-party-marks-final-hurrah-at-parrish-art-museum>