Elegance at the Museum: Inside The National Gallery’s Summer Party
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LONDON — Party can’t be spelled without art.
The National Gallery returned for its second summer party on Thursday evening in London with the city’s creative and entertainment set in attendance.
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Burberry was the gallery’s headline sponsor for its inaugural summer party last year and returned again to support the institution.
The British brand made no fuss at the party by not dressing any guests and rather just supported the British arts — a subtle move.
Sabine Getty, Greta Bellamacina, Kristen McMenamy, Bianca Jagger, Arsema Thomas, Francesca Hayward, Bella Freud and Grayson Perry dressed to the nines for the black tie event.
The museum was draped in red curtains with waiters standing on the stairs with Champagne and cocktails. Meanwhile, the rooms of the gallery were filled with food stations, including a fresh oyster trolley that traveled around.
The menu included smoked salmon, crab and apple salad, chicken confit, asparagus salad, truffle mac and cheese, a selection of cheeses, fruits and macaron towers from French pâtissier Ladurée, which resembled the work of J. M. W. Turner.
British singer-songwriter Celeste commanded the room with her soulful voice performing her hit tracks, as well as unreleased music. She sang on a black round podium with a street lamp lit in the middle in the Barry Rooms and was joined by saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings.
In another room photographer Charlie Clift captured guests in their evening-wear behind a teal backdrop.
“I just wrote a short novel. So now I’m a writer. It’s about this whole time period of high society in Paris in the ‘60s with lots of dramas, affairs and love triangles,” said Getty, who sits on the committee for the National Gallery’s summer party, which she hopes will turn into an annual event.
Her book has been written in French and she’s currently working on translating it into English with her publisher.
Getty chose the ‘60s because “women had better hair and makeup. I want to make it into a film.” She cited the 1968 film “La Chamade,” starring Catherine Deneuve, as one of her favorite films from the time. The film centers on a mistress who leaves her wealthy partner for a younger lover.
Actor, poet and filmmaker Bellamacina wore a black sheer Zimmermann gown as she spoke about her upcoming projects.
“I have a new book called ‘Who Will Make the Fire,’ it’s kind of a philosophical look on what it is to sort of be in this world and the renewal of nature, life, death and the simple reality of life,” she said, revealing that she wrote it at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown.
Her other project is a film that she co-wrote with Jaclyn Bethany titled “Tell That to the Winter Sea.”
“It’s a friendship film about two women who fall in love with each other. It’s told in real time at a hen party weekend when they’re reconnected over 10 years. It’s this thing about your first love, but then the coming of age again, when you turn 30 where everyone’s getting married and having children,” Bellamacina said.
She will be traveling to Rome over the summer to star in a film called “Tarzan.”
Bellamacina admitted that her favorite thing about the summer is seeing the roses bloom because she’s just made a vegetable garden for the first time ever at home.
Launch Gallery: Bianca Jagger, Felicity Jones and More Attend National Gallery’s 2023 Summer Party
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