Brooke Shields, Naomi Watts Honor Artist Amy Sherald at The New York Academy of Art’s Tribeca Ball

For New Yorkers, there are certain harbingers of spring that remain unique to the city. There are the tulips blooming on Park Avenue and strawberries at the Union Square farmer’s market, but for the downtown creative set, this list includes The New York Academy of Art’s annual gala, a.k.a. The Tribeca Ball. The art and artist-filled event, which was sponsored by Van Cleef Arpels, took place last night; guests, there to honor Amy Sherald, were also able to stroll through the labyrinth of studios inside The New York Academy of Art.

Welcomed by stilted flapper girls and a jazz trio whose melodies echoed through the neighborhood, a crowd comprised of equal parts students and collectors filled the school’s five floors; the former on hand to raise a glass to a job well done over the last semester, and the latter was out in hopes of finding the next undiscovered artist.

Students offered a first-hand look at their process, molding clay or applying final touches of paint to their works. In Alex Hewitt’s studio, the paint was still drying on an oil painting depicting Brittany Spears fleeing the paparazzi, a second pass at the scene, which was first done on a smaller scale, but drew widespread acclaim from classmates.

Zig-zagging through the showcase were the Academy’s steadfast supporters like Brooke Shields, Naomi Watts, Mickalene Thomas, Cynthia Rowley, and Beth Rudin de Woody, as well as newscaster Elizabeth Landers, dressed in a party-ready bubblegum pink mini dress. An hour earlier and just two blocks East at the city courthouse, Landers had a front-row seat to the Trump indictment, a buzzing topic throughout the evening only amplified by the many student works depicting the former President.

The evening carried on in the school’s large ground-floor studio space, which had been transformed into a garden of Eden, accented with underlit tapestries depicting towering topiaries and twisting pines. “You might be surprised to know the school doesn’t normally look like this,” quipped the school’s president, David Kratz, before welcoming the evening’s honoree, artist Amy Sherald, whose works greeted partygoers in the entryway. Sherald was later awarded both an honorary doctorate from the New York Academy of Art, and the stewardship role for a scholarship fund named in honor of her teacher and longtime mentor, Arturo Lindsay. “Being here tonight feels like a full circle moment,” Sherald mused. “I’m still making my way along this journey, so to be in the position to lend a hand to the next generation of artists means I’m doing something right. For that, I’m so grateful.”