CASITA MARIA CENTER FOR ARTS AND EDUCATION ANNUAL FIESTA @ PLAZA HOTEL
Ben Rodriguez-Cubenas With Jackie Weld Drake And Hunt Slonem Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education brought its annual Fiesta! Gala back to The Plaza Hotel with Chairs Jackie Weld Drake, Jean Shafiroff, and HRH Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, where longtime friends, artists, philanthropists, and supporters gathered to celebrate the organization’s 92nd anniversary. The sold-out benefit raised the most to-date, and honored artist Hunt Slonem, philanthropist Sonia Gutt deHaime, and Ben Rodriguez-Cubeñas, who received the Jackie Weld Drake Living Legend Award. Hunt Slonem, recognized for his exuberant paintings of bunnies and butterflies was celebrated not only for his extraordinary career (with work displayed at The Met, Guggenheim, Whitney, and more), but for the spirit of creativity he shares with Casita Maria's mission. “For the last 35 years I have attended and supported this Gala and Casita Maria,” said he, “as a child, I wanted to be an artist due to the ...