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FROM: Bonnie Squires 610-649-0998
The Alliance Francaise de Philadelphie will honor Derek Gillman, President of the Barnes Foundation, with its Ambassador of the Arts Award at the annual Bastille Day dinner event on Saturday, July 14, 2012, at the Independence Seaport Museum.
Nancy Gabel, of Wynnewood, vice president of the Alliance Fracaise and chair of the Bastille Day event, announced the schedule: at 7:00 PM there will be a cocktail reception, followed by a buffet dinner by Brulee Catering and Chef Jean-Merie Lacroix.
There is dancing under the stars with live music by the Fred Hall Orchestra and Susan Gay, of Bryn Mawr, as vocalist.
There is also an open bar.
There is a large silent auction, and the raffle prize is two round-trip tickets to Paris on Delta-KLM-AirFrance-Alitalia.
Members of the Honorary Committee include The Honorable Michael E. Scullin, Honorary Consul of France in Philadelphia & Wilmington; Diana M. Regan, President of the Alliance Francaice; Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown; Donald R. Caldwell; U.S. Senator Robert P. Casey; Senator Daylin Leach; U.S.Rep Patrick Meehan; Leslie Miller and Richard Worley; Mayor Michael A. Nutter; Honorable Edward G. Rendell; Rep. James R. Roebuck; Dr. Neil L. Rudenstine; U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz;
Hon. Arlen Specter; and Joseph Zuritsky.
Sponsors of the event include Arkema Trois Petits Cochons and Lillet.
For tickets and information call 215-735-5283 or visit the website at www.afphila.com.
Photo 1) Seen here at a planning meeting at the Barnes offices are (left to right) Martine Chauvet, executive director of the Alliance Francaise; Andrew Stewart, Director of Communications for the Barnes Foundation; and Nancy Gabel, of Wynnewood, vice president of the Alliance Francaise and chair of the Bastille Day event.
Photo 2) Derek Gillman, President of the Barnes Foundation, will receive the Ambassador of the Arts Award from the Alliance Francaise de Philadelphie at the annual Bastille Day event on Saturday, July 14.
DEREK GILLMAN
Derek Gillman was appointed President of the Barnes Foundation in October 2006. From 2001-06 he held the position of President and Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he oversaw the celebration of the institution's two hundredth anniversary in 2005. Prior to moving to the Academy as Executive Director and Provost in 1999, Mr. Gillman served as Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia's largest encyclopedic art museum. From 1985-1995 he was Keeper (equivalent to Director) of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, which houses the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection of modern art, antiquities, and the arts of Africa, the Pacific region and the Americas.
He began his museum career in 1981 at the British Museum as a research assistant in the Department of Oriental Antiquities. Between 1977-81 he worked as a specialist in Chinese art at Christie's London, following a year spent at the Beijing Languages Institute on a British Council scholarship. He was an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he first read Philosophy and Psychology and then Chinese Studies, and holds a Master of Laws degree by research from the University of East Anglia. He has written and taught on the subjects of Chinese art and cultural heritage, and a revised edition of his book The Idea of Cultural Heritage was published by Cambridge University Press in 2010. He is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors and president of the International Cultural Property Society, which oversees the International Journal of Cultural Property.
Mr. Gillman has been intimately involved with five significant construction projects: an extension to the Sainsbury Centre undertaken by its original architect, Norman Foster; two buildings in Melbourne - a renovation of the National Gallery of Victoria by Mario Bellini (now the NGV International), and a new museum for the NGV's Australian collections designed by the London practice Lab Architecture; the 270,000 sq. ft. Samuel M. V. Hamilton Building at the Pennsylvania Academy, renovated by Dagit-Saylor; and a new building for the Barnes Foundation on Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin Parkway designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.
He is married to Yael Hirsch and has three children.
Since its founding in 1903, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Alliance Française (nonprofit) has encouraged the study of the French language and literature, promoted French culture and fostered friendly relations between France and the United States with a uniquely Philadelphia touch, style and tradition.
The Alliance Française school has two campuses (Center City Philadelphia and Bryn Mawr College), a faculty of more than twenty and a yearly registration of 1500 students. The school offers a wide variety of courses designed to meet the needs of all students, from complete beginners to those who are fluent in French and want to further their conversational and/or grammatical skills as well as their knowledge of French civilization and culture.
Alliance Francaise de Philadelphie
1420 Walnut Street 7th floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-735-5283
www.afphila.com
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