Online Balls and Making Art

With the New York party scene on hiatus, here is how some patrons and society figures are spending their time and resources during the coronavirus pandemic.


Age: 62

Occupation: president of the New York Academy of Art

Favorite charities: Women in Need; the Heart of Art, an auction for the American Nurses Foundation.

Where are you hunkering down? Near Delray Beach, Fla., with his husband, Greg Unis.

How are you filling the hours? I get up by 7 a.m. and give myself an hour to assemble my thoughts over coffee and the paper. I go straight to the editorials. They always kick my mind into gear.

What gives you comfort? I’m cooking up a storm, making some crazy dishes I’ve never made before: batter-fried halibut, a concoction of duck breast with black peppercorn. I check in with friends. Once a week we have a Zoom cocktail hour. At first you think, “I really don’t need this.” And then you realize, you do.


Age: 57

Occupation: television producer, author, screenwriter

Favorite charities: the American Ballet Theater; LDF (formerly the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund).

Where are you hunkering down? Her apartment in Manhattan.

How has this crisis changed your routines? We were in script mode when the pandemic struck. I had come back to New York from Los Angeles, where I’m head writer for the new Lena Waithe comedy “Twenties.”

I’d intended to spend the time with my husband, daughter and dog, then return to Los Angeles. But the night I landed, Dr. Fauci made the plea to eliminate extraneous travel. Since then, I’ve been working from home. As writers we are so fortunate to need only our imaginations and a laptop to create entire worlds.

source: nytimes.com