Malibu’s Luanne Wells and Carla Sands were among those who enjoyed a unique evening at The Broad. The Blue Ribbon of the Music Center toasted its members, followed by an interactive dinner at Otium, prepared by Chef Tim Hollingsworth.
The Blue Ribbon was created in 1968 by Music Center founder Dorothy Buffum Chandler. Its charter is to plan and sponsor social, educational and cultural activities for The Music Center and Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County. Center venues include the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall, which features a garden donated by the Blue Ribbon membership and the brand new 12-acre Grand Park, which stretches from The Music Center Plaza to City Hall.
Blue Ribbon members come from all areas of Los Angeles County, each of them of equal value and called upon to help purely on the basis of her talents and abilities. Each is an important community citizen and leader in her own field. In its more than 40-year history, Blue Ribbon members have contributed over $71 million in support of The Music Center’s resident companies and arts education programs.
The Blue Ribbon Children’s Festival was created in 1970 and is one of Blue Ribbon’s proudest achievements, having hosted over 800,000 students since its inception. The festival is one of California’s longest ongoing free arts education programs and fifth-graders from schools in the City and County of Los Angeles and surrounding counties are invited each year. Over a period of three days each spring, school buses bring 18,000 students to The Music Center to experience a live performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and activities on The Music Center plaza. For many students, this is the first time they will visit The Music Center. Blue Ribbon members are responsible for funding, preparing and staffing the three-day event.
Blue Ribbon has hosted gala openings of the Bolshoi Ballet, and, with Center Dance Arts, a gala opening for the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and The Kirov Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.”
Membership to this club has its benefits.
Blue Ribbon members are invited to private (often pre-opening) visits to museums across the Los Angeles area, such as LACMA, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, the Huntington Library Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, the Norton Simon, and Malibu’s Getty Villa. Most recently, members were invited to a behind-the-scenes tour of the conservation areas and vaults of the Getty Center.
One thing is for sure, The Blue Ribbon will make you the ultimate arts insider.