Bring the Funk!

THE PARTY The Museum of Contemporary Art hosted its annual winter benefit, artEdge 2012. HMR Design Group and Event Creative transformed the tented Sculpture Garden into a luxe cocktail lounge of spherical chandeliers, highboys and seating, all coated in pliable plastic that shimmered under icy-blue lighting. Dinner in the Kovler Atrium—at long, glowing tables lit from within—was a homestyle feast of roasted chicken with wild mushroom spoon bread pudding and collard greens. Chef Wolfgang Puck drifted among diners before hosts dressed in Nick Cave’s Soundsuits led everyone back to the garden for a performance by George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. THE PLAYERS The 600 guests included MCA Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn, Anne Kaplan, Sally Meyers Kovler, and artists Nick Cave, Theaster Gates and Rashid Johnson. Co-chairs Liza and Marc Brooks, Anne and Don Edwards, Penny Pritzker, and Bryan Traubert joined honorary co-chairs Chicago first lady Amy Rule and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. OVERHEARD Mayor Emanuel welcomed guests in a jacket but no tie, joking about his appreciation of the evening’s “fashionably funky” dress code. Acknowledging the crowd’s continued support of the arts, he exclaimed, “Chicago is second to none!” Photography by Bob Carl