Honoree Ted Wang (Center)
Photo credit Wenting Gu
The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) celebrated its 18th annual gala this week at Cipriani Wall Street on November 18. The event drew a spirited crowd of nearly 500 guests and raised over 1.2 million to benefit the Museum. The evening was a glamorous mixture of New York City’s key personalities, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and creative forces. The program opened with remarks by Patricia P. Tang (Chair, MOCA Board of Trustees).
Emcees for the evening BD Wong
Honorees of the Legacy Awards included Ted Wang (Advisory Director at Goldman Sachs and philanthropist), who was presented his award by Maya Lin (MOCA Board of Trustee); Victor and William Fung Foundation Ltd. (educational charity) whose award was accepted by Michael Hsieh and presented by Anla Cheng-Kingdon (MOCA Board of Trustee); Tyrus Wong (artist and Disney illustrator of Bambi) was presented his award by Audrey Zhang (Artist, 2014 Doodle4Google Winner).
Board chair of MOCA, Patricia P. Tang
Special highlights included a rare appearance by honoree Tyrus Wong at the gala which celebrated and paid tribute to his life work as a painter, muralist, kite-maker, lithographer and calligrapher. Also featured during the evening, was a Tyrus tribute video from Pamela Tom’s upcoming documentary on the artist. The 104 year old artist has an extensive and extraordinary body of work including Disney’s iconic American children’s classic, “Bambi.” Tyrus’s Chinese-inspired sketches and Sung-dynasty influenced paintings set the look and tone for Bambi and were some of the most strikingly beautiful art ever produced at the Disney studio. Next spring, MOCA will present his retrospective exhibition, Water to Paper, Paint to Sky: The Art of Tyrus Wong. This highly anticipated exhibition will make its debut for the 1st time in New York and opens March 26, 2015.
Kevin Fong , Tyrus Wong's grandson
Notable attendees included Wellington Chen, Chen Guoqing, Chiu-Ti Jansen, Zhang Hongtu, Caroline Hyman, Jason Sun, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Pichet Ong, Alex Wong, and Jasmine Yan. Emcees were BD Wong and Melissa Lee.
Emcees for the evening Melissa Lee and BD Wong
Gala Committee Members in attendance were Thomas C. Ahn, Anla Cheng and Mark Kingdon, Jonathan Chu, Kevin D. Eng, Michelle Koo Hayashi, Patricia P. Tang, Sandra K. Lee and Stephen Boon, Brian Levine, Dr Jonathan K. Ligh and Mrs. Melanie P. Ligh, Maya Lin and Daniel Wolf.
Auctioneer Jasmine Yan from Sotheby's
MOCA is honored by the attendance of elected and government officials: Judge Doris Ling-Cohan, Ron Kim (Assembly Member), Eric L. Adams (Borough President of Brooklyn); and Lei Cheng (Deputy Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in New York).
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