Elliot Goldenthal Honored by NYFA

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced that author and co-director of the Acquavella Gallery Michael Findlay, composer Elliot Goldenthal, filmmaker Mira Nair and visual artist Fred Wilson will be inducted into the NYFA Hall of Fame on Tuesday, April 23rd at Espace (635 West 42nd Street).

The evening begins at 6:30 with a cocktail reception featuring interactive art by past and current NYFA grantees, followed by dinner and remarks from all the honorees. Tickets start at $500 and tables at $5,000; tickets for the Young Patrons After party, which begins at 9:30, are $250. Tickets and tables at all levels can be purchased at www.nyfa.org.

The NYFA Hall of Fame was created to both honor the work of artists to whom NYFA provided critical support early in their careers and recognize philanthropists and patrons of the arts who have had an impact of the City's cultural community. Past honorees include: Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio; Todd Haynes; Christian Marclay; Kathleen O'Grady; Suzan-Lori Parks; Wendy Perron; Ben Rodriguez-Cubenas, and Andres Serrano. Bios of 2013 inductees (photos are available):

Michael Findlay (Patron of the Arts) is the Co-Director of Acquavella Galleries, which specializes in Impressionist and Modern European works of art and post-war American painting and sculpture. In 1973 Findlay helped organize an art auction at Sotheby Parke-Bernet to benefit survivors of the Nicaraguan earthquake and since then has been involved in many such fund-raising activities. As Vice President of the Art Dealers Association of America, Findlay assisted in the recent appeal that raised over a million dollars to benefit non-profit and commercial galleries devastated by Hurricane Sandy. His book The Value of Art was published by Prestel Publishing in 2012. Mr. Findlay will be introduced by visual artist Billy Sullivan.

Elliot Goldenthal (NYFA Fellow in Music Composition, 1989) creates works for orchestra, theater, opera, ballet and film. In 2006, his original two-act opera Grendel, directed by Julie Taymor, premiered at the Los Angeles Opera, and was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in music. He was commissioned by the American Ballet Theatre to compose a three-act ballet of Othello, which debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1997. His large-scale symphonic piece, Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio, was commissioned by the Pacific Symphony to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. In 2003, he was honored with the Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for Frida and received an Oscar nomination for the film's original song and previous Oscar nominations for his music for Interview With the Vampire and Michael Collins. He has also received two Golden Globe nominations, three Grammy Award nominations, and a Tony Award nomination. He is composing the original music for a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to be directed by Taymor for Theatre for a New Audience this Fall. Mr. Goldenthal will be introduced by soprano Jessye Norman.

Mira Nair (NYFA Fellow in Film, 1988) is a writer, director, and producer. At the University of Delhi she started out in the theater department acting, but turned to photography and eventually to documentary filmmaking at Harvard. She made four documentaries about Indian life and society. In 1988, Nair's first feature film, Salaam Bombay!, won the Camera d'Or for Best First Film at the Cannes Film Festival and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. In 2004 she launched a film lab called Maisha, based in Uganda as a home for East African and South Asian filmmakers to gather and learn new skills. Her other films include: Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, Vanity Fair and Amelia; her latest film,The Reluctant Fundamentalist, will be released by IFC Films in April. Ms. Nair will be introduced by filmmaker D.A. Pennbaker.

Fred Wilson (NYFA Fellow in Sculpture, 1987, 1991) is an internationally renowned artist whose work has been exhibited in cultural institutions and public spaces throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, including the 50th Venice Biennale at which Wilson represented the United States. Wilson received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" Achievement Award in 1999 and the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award in 2000. He is the board president of Sculpture center, a trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art and a board member of Creative Capital. He was born in the Bronx and lives and works in Manhattan, where he is represented by the Pace Gallery. Mr. Wilson will be introduced by curator and scholar Carin Kuoni.

The NYFA Hall of Fame Benefit is Sponsored by: Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP; Acquavella Galleries; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and Shearman & Sterling LLP.