'An Evening of Many Cultures' at Met Museum Will Honor Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, et al.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's second Multicultural Benefit, "An Evening of Many Cultures," will take place on September 26, 2011. Among the honorees will be Samuel L. Jackson, soon to appear on Broadway as DR. Martin Luther King, Jr., and LaTanya Richardson Jackson; and Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower De Niro. This black-tie gala is the signature event in celebration of the Museum's Multicultural Audience Development Initiative (MADI), founded in 1998.

The 2011 Multicultural Benefit will also honor the artists Olga de Amaral and Cai Guo-Qiang. Olga de Amaral is a Colombian artist whose masterful tapestries and fiber sculptures are included in the collections of museums around the world, including the Metropolitan. She previously served as co-chair of the Museum's 2008 benefit. Chinese-born artist Cai Guo-Qiang is known internationally for his elaborate sculpture installations and gunpowder projects. He created a site-specific exhibition in 2006 for The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at the Met entitled Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument.

ESSENCE magazine is the print media sponsor of the Multicultural Gala.

Chair of the gala benefit is Spencer Means. Honorary dance chairs are New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony and La La Anthony. Co-chairs of the dance are Zoe Jackson and Keija Minor.

"We are delighted to celebrate the initiative with old and new supporters and friends, and to spread the word about our dedication to providing a meeting ground for visitors, who come together from widely different cultures to experience the Metropolitan Museum's outstanding and diverse collections," commented Donna Williams, the Metropolitan Museum's Chief Audience Development Officer.

Dinner guests will arrive at the Metropolitan Museum at 6:30 p.m. for cocktails in the Great Hall and dinner at The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing, followed by a dance party in the Great Hall with admission beginning at 8:30 p.m.

The evening's festivities will feature a viewing of the exhibition Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures. Bringing together more than one hundred masterpieces drawn from collections in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, and the United States, this major international loan exhibition will consider eight landmark sculptural traditions from West and Central Africa created between the twelfth and early twentieth centuries. The exhibition is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Ceil & Michael E. Pulitzer Foundation, Inc., and the National Endowment for the Arts.