Modern Ball chair Gina Peterson will oversee the festivities. LucasSchoemaker, McCalls Catering & Events’ executive chef, will curate food inall the venues, collecting and presenting the artful goods of NorCal’s finestfood artisans. And Stanlee R. Gatti, the ball’s artist in residence, will designthe expectation-shattering table decor.

Gatti and I had plenty of time to talk about the event on the phone acouple of weeks ago when he ran out of gas, hemmed in by an unexpectedBarack Obama motorcade bound for the Getty manse. “The breakthroughfor this Modern Ball, of course, is the extraordinary new expansion,” Gattisays. “And both dinners take place inside the museum. That’s a first for theball. We have never had space like this indoors—we have always put uptents to accommodate everyone.” (But what tents they were! Guests stilltalk about the Pop Art motif of the 2007 Mod Ball, when Gatti re-createdAndy Warhol’s infamous Factory inside a colossal Mylar pavilion.)

“To have interior space for 700 guests for dinner is unparalleled,” Gattiadds. “And to have everyone celebrating together after dinner will be

orgasmic. The SFMOMA architec-ture is our lens. The architectureand the art are the centers of atten-tion. We have no plans to compete.We’re focusing on the tables.’”

Besides his gala chores,Schoemaker is also opening Cafe 5,a fifth-floor, 250-seat casual restau-rant offering light California-fusionfare. “Cafe 5 spreads into beautifulspace in the garden and pavilion,”Schoemaker says. “But you willneed a museum ticket to get upthere, and to the third floor, whereSightglass is opening a coffee-and-pastry bar. In Situ, run by Michelin-three-star chef Corey Lee, is on themuseum’s entry floor and will beopen to the public.”

Proceeds from the Modern Ball benefit SFMOMA’s celebrated exhibi-

’s biennial Modern Ball turns 11 years old on May 12, and celebrates the union of the renovated 1995 Mario Botta–designed museumwith a new 10-story expansion after a three-year closure. Designed in part-nership with Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, the addition’s fasci-nating façade echoes the irregular waves of San Francisco Bay. A scattering

of embedded sand particles glints whencaught by the sun,offering an homage to our fog-sun-foginterludes.

With nearly triple its previous galleryspace, the reopenedSFMOMA will heraldthe return of treasuredworks from the muse-um’s permanent col-lection, augmented by260 of the promised1,100 works from theDoris and DonaldFisher Collection. Itmarks the introduc-tion of the newPritzker Center forPhotography, a museum-within-the-museum that isAmerica’s largest suchresource dedicated tothe medium. It willalso allow the curiousto see how Snøhettadeveloped its design.SFMOMA will awe all eyes.

The Modern Ballbuzz began months agoin the boxes at the sym-phony, ballet and opera,quickly reaching acrescendo with the city’sswells, swans andswains, gallerists and techies, hipsters andchicsters, SoMas andNoPas. Everybody wantedin. This would be the artbash of bashes. Ticketswere gone in a Jumpin’Jack Flash.

The ball begins inlate daylight on the12th, when the aficionados andcognoscenti attendingthe two signature dinners enter the never-before-seen rooftop sculpture

theBALLisBACK

Expectations are high for SFMOMA̓s grand reopeningand the return of the Modern Ball. By SANDRA J. SWANSON

CLOCKWISE FROMABOVE: The

Snøhetta expansionnearly triples

SFMOMA̓s galleryspace. Guests

cavort at the lastModern Ball in2014. The new

facade suggestsrippling waves.

Inaugural exhibitions will

include works byDiane Arbus andRoy Lichtenstein.

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