If one would ask moi, “What was the event of the month (February)?”—without moi batting an eyelash, it would be the gala launch of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila’s Philippine Contemporary art exhibition, dahlings.

The exhibit was a super-successful fundraising event. Its elegant dinner was attended by our town’s alta sociedad, stellar personalities expressing their support of the museum and “its new direction focusing on contemporary art by Filipino and foreign artists.”

The Met proudly shared its new vision with A-listers, who treasure and advocate Philippine art and culture.

The Met was thankfully helped by platinum sponsors such as Belo Medical Group, Bench, Century Properties, Del Monte and NutriAsia, Fila, Mercedes Benz, PLDT Group and Sta. Elena Construction; and gold sponsors such as the Herma Group, Kai, Magsaysay, LVMH Wines and Spirits, Philippine Tatler, North Port, Phoenix Petroleum, Pioneer Insurance and Internet retailer Zalora.

The chic guests were greeted by mimes who brought us to the cocktail area, where we sipped different cocktail concoctions while breezing through the new permanent exhibit of the Met curated by art teacher Patrick Flores.

The permanent exhibition, “Horizon, Trajectory and Latitude,” traced “the growth of modern and contemporary art from the early 20th century up to the present.” It shows a variety of styles, movements and institutions that have shaped the course of Philippine art.

Elegant

The elegant, sit-down dinner was served at the Tall Galleries where works from the awesome art collection of Paulino Que were displayed.

For the benefit dinner, guests were seated in three rows of super long tables decked with green decorative moss.

Colorful art pieces made by Leeroy New added a special touch to the room. These pieces were later given as “thank-you gifts to those who pledged donations to the museum,” said the organizers.

During the five-course dinner by Kai, complemented by New World wines from LVMH group, messages from Joselito Campos Jr. and Tina Colayco, chair and president of the Met, were delivered.

On the gala chairs were Tatler’s Irene Martel Francisco, Doris Magsaysay Ho, Ricco Ocampo and Mercedes “Dedes” Zobel. They expressed thanks to the various donors and those who generously purchased tables for the evening’s fund-raising. Gala co-chairs were Olivia Campos, Marissa Concepcion, Sharmila Hirarand, Fe Rodriguez and Elizabeth Virata.

Musical performances included a jazz quartet, Argentine melodies on accordion, and nuevo flamenco rendered through guitar, bass, flute and kahon.

An interesting dance number was prepared by Leeroy New to go with the whole theme of the night of charity and art; it had our full attention.

Après the formal dinner, there was a fun bash which was DJ’d by Kat Razon; it had the younger set and some young-at-heart rocking the museum.

The party was organized by the Met Party Committee led by Jessie and Patrick Maxwell, Cristalle Henares and Tim Yap.

Tours of galleries were arranged to encourage interest in art among the younger guests.

Extraordinary

It was an extraordinary evening that celebrated art and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila’s new vision and direction, dahlings.

Okay, who were these good-looking supposed friends who were all over the museum during dinner, making sure the chi-chi crowd saw them?

Then there were these two ladies who were not on the friendliest of terms who bumped into each other at the ladies’ room. One of them left and was heard saying, “I can’t stand her, and of all places we had to be inside (pointing to the ladies’ room) together.”

Oh well, dahlings, if you had to pull each other’s hairdo, better there than in the museum, di bala?

And lastly, one of the ladies was screaming mad on how long it took the waiters to move on to the next dish. Après her telling the one in charge of the waiters how she felt, during the last main dish which was a steak, the waiters kept hovering behind the guests as they ate, which made some of the guests very uneasy. The waiters kept looking over the guests’ shoulders, apparently to hurry them up so they could move on to the dessert.

Lesson: Waiters in an affair like this should have been briefed on how fast it is to serve the dinner.

Well, we can’t satisfy the whole community, palanggas.

But, as a whole, it was still the hard-to-beat affair of the month.