Museum Event & Experience in the Early Essay

Museum Event & Experience

In the early 1900's, Henry Flagler built a 75-room, 100,000 square-foot home that was used as a Palm Beach winter retreat for his family. Gatherings at the residence -- known as Whitehall -- were an establishing force of the Palm Beach season for wealthy families during the Gilded Age. Flagler died roughly 100 years ago, and subsequent years saw the residence and grounds become a National Historic Landmark and achieve consistent support through the fund development of the Whitehall Society, an organization created to cultivate fiscal support and ensure sufficient patronage to preserve Whitehall. One of the main areas of focus for the Whitehall Society is the support of creative educational programs for children. For instance, in March 2014, the Whitehall Society will host a Mad Hatter's Tea at which children and their parents will craft festive hats and practice table etiquette at a Gilded Age styled lunch in the Cafe de Beaux-Arts housed in the Flagler Kenan Pavilion on the Museum grounds. This upcoming event is a bit different than most of the Whitehall Society fund-raisers in that it children are primary participants and the focus of the event. The event that I attended was definitely designed for adult connoisseurs of the arts.

November 9, 2013, at the customary time before dinner, the Whitehall Society hosted a cocktail party designed to celebrate the tradition of cocktails -- and its history in America.Attendance at the fundraiser was moderately priced, with $40 for members of the Whitehall Society, and $50 for non-members. Hors d'oeuvres were suitably served in Flagler Kenan Pavilion at One Whitehall Way, Palm Beach, Florida. Six cocktails popular during the time in American known as the Gilded Ages were featured, providing guests ample opportunity to taste cocktails and identify their favorites.

Attendees were members of the Board of Trustees of Whitehall, donors and guests, including: Rob Hanke, William Matthews, Baxter & Ann Webb, Brooke Chapman-Marshman, Robert Murphy, April Wehle, Homer Marshman, Nicole & Ryan Munder, and Pam & Brad Miller. While guests were dressed in contemporary fashion -- unlike the adornment worn at the Bal Poudres, which means powdered wig balls, held at Whitehall -- the setting was more contemporary than the main floors of Whitehall. The Flagler Kenan Pavilion is an extraordinarily beautiful, large, and complex structure.

The architects of Whitehall were trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The Flagler Kenan Pavilion illustrates the beau-arts tradition well, and is a fitting location for a celebratory event. Whitehall was constructed to evoke a Grecian temple, such as those constructed to honor Apollo. The Greeks believed that temples to Apollo functioned as homes for Muses of art and literature. Notably, the word….....