Bottega’s support helped bring the project to the public, continuing the house’s long-standing commitment to championing craft in all its forms. “It is very meaningful—the house recognizes that the museum has a long-term mission to bring art into the world and to support artists,” said Mariët Westermann, director and CEO of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. “To see the tour of the museum that Taryn gave to Louise yesterday, walking up these ramps, and the seriousness with which Louise engaged with it all—it was very moving. The connection they had was great.”
At the rotunda’s base, three long tables were dressed in white linens and dotted with emerald-green hydrangeas, echoing the bursts of color against the museum’s own white walls. Once guests found their seats, Westermann called the room to attention, drawing a throughline between the years Simon had devoted to the exhibition, and the discipline and patient artistry behind each Bottega piece. Both, she noted, demand time “to imagine, to craft, to perfect,” along with an understanding of the moment in which the finished work will meet the world. Her remarks culminated in a toast to the three women at the heart of the evening—Simon, Chiu, and Trotter—and the creative community gathered around them. “I’m raising it to art, and to the creative life, to leadership, and to purpose.”
The savoir-faire extended to the food. Dinner traded cocktail hour’s crab toasts for root vegetable tarts and trout roe-covered quail eggs for brown butter chicken with sage fingerling potatoes. Chatter drifted from the importance of championing female creatives to the dedication and persistence that ambitious work demands. “All the women that are involved [here] are super empowering, especially in today’s climate,” said Walker, nodding to those who made the evening possible. There was even a little art-making at the tables. One guest, mid-conversation, folded and twisted his place card into a tiny paper crane. Meyer lemon olive oil cake and espresso martinis gave guests reason to linger, stealing another look overhead between bites.
By the time everyone stepped onto Fifth Avenue, appetites satiated and art fix delivered, admiration had turned into calendar coordination: a return visit was essential. “Is everyone free Saturday?” asked one guest, already searching for the e-vite on her phone.
