Empire Produces The Happy Hearts Fund Land of Dreams Gala Featuring Marc Anthony
Happy Hearts Fund is an organization dedicated to rebuilding children’s lives after natural disasters. The organization was founded by supermodel Petra Nemcova after she survived the South-East Asia earthquake and tsunami of 2004. Every year, Happy Hearts Fund holds its Land of Dreams Gala in New York City and focuses on a different country where they conduct their programs. This year’s gala spotlighted the foundation’s efforts in Mexico and once again, Empire served as the gala producer.
This year’s event, which took place at the Metropolitan Pavilion on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 welcomed special guest Carlos Slim, among others, and featured a performance by Marc Anthony. The evening raised over $3 million dollars for the foundation to rebuild more than 30 schools and to restore hope and opportunity in the lives of children around the world.
The evening’s journey began with a trip down the Happy Hearts Fund orange carpet past the airport arrivals board where flight attendants and airplane pilots welcomed guests into the Land of Dreams: Mexico. Once inside, guests were greeted by the image of a towering Chichen Itza pyramid decorated with flickering candlelight on each of its steps. A beautiful canopy of string lights radiated from the highest point of the pyramid casting a festive glow onto the entire party.
During cocktails, guests enjoyed live music by Mariachi Real de Mexico, while visiting a series of experience stations inspired by treasures from Mexico’s diverse states. These experience stations included Mexico City’s Museo Soumaya, the underwater museum, a craft and food market vignette, and the Happy Hearts school vignette. The Museo Soumaya vignette was inspired by the museum’s extensive collection of Rodin sculptures and its starkly modern architecture. The vignette spotlighted three Rodin replicas with dramatic lighting set against a sleek architectural backdrop. The underwater museum vignette was modeled after the Museo Subacuatico de Arte in Cancun and featured an underwater sculpture installation viewed through an aquarium window. The craft and food market vignette included beautiful displays of pottery, ceramics, baskets, and textiles from various regions in Mexico. In the food market portion, guests were offered a variety of tasting opportunities including mole negro, coffee from Véracruz, Ibarra chocolate from Jalisco, and three kinds of chili peppers from Oaxaca. The jungle vignette was dressed in lush jungle foliage, complete with an adorable live baby cougar named Zeus. The Happy Hearts school vignette was modeled after a Happy Hearts Fund primary school and dressed with traditional Mexican decor while featuring a live Spanish lesson activity.
After the cocktail reception, guests moved into the North Pavilion for the seated dinner and program. Bloomberg Television’s Nicole Lapin, the emcee of the evening, introduced the founder of Happy Hearts Fund, the stunning Petra Nemcova, and Executive Director Phil Caputo to welcome guests and set the tone for the evening.
The dinner program featured remarks by honorees Howard G. Buffett, president of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and Don Juan Beckmann Vidal, chairman of José Cuervo. Also featured was Lynne Greene, Group President of The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc and Global President for Clinique. The evening included performances by a student from the Happy Hearts Fund Arcadio Zentella School in Tabasco, Mexico and opera singers from Sociedad Internacional de Valores de Arte. After dinner, auctioneer Simon De Pury, of Phillips de Pury & Company, raised over $2 million dollars in an action packed live auction. For the grand finalé of the evening, five time Grammy winner Marc Anthony delivered a high-energy performance that brought guests to their feet and had them dancing until the night’s end.
Working closely with Happy Hearts Fund, Empire served as Producer of Land of Dreams, managing elements including décor, technical production, performing talent and stage management.
To learn more about the efforts of Happy Hearts Fund or to donate, please visit happyheartsfund.org.
Empire is proud to serve charitable organizations like Happy Hearts Fund and to help support their important work across the globe.
Guests received their first taste of technological innovation at registration, where they were welcomed by name on a reactive LED screen installation covering the full width of the entry wall. A large lunch café was created with a décor scheme that incorporated custom-built, ceiling-high steel LED frames draped with foliage to create smaller, intimate restaurant-style spaces that displayed both technology and nature.
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