Celebrate Peacock Room REMIX: Darren Waterston’s Filthy Lucre, a reimagination of James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room, and support American art at the Galleries

On Friday, May 15, 2015, join art lovers, philanthropists, diplomats, and artists for a sumptuous evening to celebrate American art and a spectacular new work.

Guests start their extraordinary evening at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery with a champagne reception and an exclusive preview of Peacock Room REMIX: Darren Waterston’s Filthy Lucre, on public view for the first time in Washington. The dazzling event continues over dinner at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium. Guests then “Flock Together” at the after-party and enjoy drinks, dessert, and dancing with a special performance by BETTY, the rock band that composed and recorded the mesmerizing soundscape for Filthy Lucre.

For more information about the 2015 Birds of a Feather Gala, please contact fsevents@si.edu.

Max N. Berry has practiced international trade law in Washington for more than fifty years. He served as a captain in the US Army Judge Advocate General Corps at the Pentagon and later as an attorney in the General Counsel’s Office of the Department of the Treasury. In addition to his work as an attorney in the Law Offices of Max N. Berry since 1967, he has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations and has actively collected American and European paintings and sculpture, Chinese antiquities, Judaica, antique toys and mechanical banks, scrimshaw, and maritime antiques associated with Nantucket. He is the past chairman of the Smithsonian’s National Board of Trustees and the first president of the National Board of Alumni Trustees. Berry currently serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Archives of American Art, Trustees Council of the National Gallery of Art, Terra Foundation for American Art, Gilcrease Museum (University of Tulsa), and Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (University of Oklahoma). He has received many foreign, national, and regional awards in recognition of his contributions to community affairs and the advancement of the arts.

Gillian Anderson gained worldwide recognition playing Special Agent Dana Scully in The X-Files. She garnered several awards and much critical praise over the nine-year run of the popular television show. Other notable credits include the films The House of Mirth, The Last King of Scotland, and Shadow Dancer as well as the acclaimed miniseries Bleak House, Any Human Heart, and Great Expectations for the BBC. Her stage credits include What the Night is For, The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, and an Olivier-nominated performance as Nora in A Doll’s House at the Donmar Warehouse in London’s West End. Anderson recently won the Evening Standard Theater Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic in London. Currently she can be seen on Netflix as Stella Gibson in The Fall and on NBC as Bedelia Du Maurier in Hannibal. Now filming War and Peace for the Weinstein Company and BBC, Anderson is also in the film Robot Overlords with Ben Kingsley. She looks forward to reprising the role of Blanche DuBois on stage in New York City in 2016.

Dame Jillian Sackler is a New York-based philanthropist and widow of Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, founder of the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Dame Jillian has been actively involved with the Sackler Gallery since its inception in 1987, serving on its Visiting Committee and supporting numerous projects. In 2011 she provided a generous endowment to support the director’s position, which is now known as the Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art. Her philanthropic activity includes board service at numerous organizations, such as the Royal Academy of Art, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Film Institute.