Inside Dallas’s Biggest Night

On October 22, gallerists, dealers, artists, collectors, and philanthropists from around the country descended on the Rachofsky House in Dallas for the 23rd annual TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art Gala—the largest fundraiser in the U.S. for The Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Between ticket sales, and both a silent and a live auction consisting of 132 works of art, the event raised $9.4 million, with funds split down the line between amfAR and Dallas’s leading contemporary art museum. Hosted by event founders Cindy and Howard Rachofsky—along with co-hosts Lisa and John Runyon and presenting sponsor Saks—the 535 well-heeled guests were treated to top shelf cocktails and spirits under a starry night sky from Tequila Casa Dragones, Belvedere, and La Grande Dame, as they mixed, mingled, and placed bids on first-rate artworks benefitting two venerable organizations. “One of the things that’s important to know, is that the money the museum receives has to be recycled to artists and dealers who’ve supported the event,” noted Cindy Rachofsky. And, according to Howard, of the over 400 works bought with funds received since the event’s inception in 1999, every artist and dealer has had the chance to be the beneficiary, adding that “it’s a virtuous circle of generosity.”

Designed by Todd Fiscus of Todd Events, the gala evening was divided into three distinctively glamorous moments including the open-air cocktail lounge, a 7,000-square-foot geodesic dome dinner tent on the home’s front lawn—with an interior décor that Fiscus referred to as a “modern disco fantasy”—and a “pink candy wonderland” after-party in the back garden, presented by Nancy Rogers, where guests danced into the early morning hours to the sounds of DJ Lucy Wrubel. At the end of the dinner program, Nile Rodgers and CHIC had the crowd jumping to his greatest hits like “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” and “Let’s Dance.”

During the dinner and live auction, amfAR’s 2022 Award of Excellence for Artistic Contributions to the Fight Against AIDS was presented to artist Rashid Johnson. Previous recipients of the award include Alex Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Yoshitomto Nara, Ed Ruscha, April Gornik, and Julian Schnabel. In its more than two decades, TWO x TWO has raised over $113 million for arts and AIDS research.

The fashionable crowd included: artists Alex Israel and Sheree Hovsepian, New York-based fashion designers Adam Lippes and LaQuan Smith, Saks CEO Marc Metrick and VP Mariel Kriss Sholem, Jamie Sholem, Kaleta Blaffer Johnson and John Domolky, Thomas Keller, Ann Cogin, Cameron Silver, NBA All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, Marguerite Hoffman, Kameron and Court Westcott, John Berggruen, Bertha Gonzàlez Nieves, Christen Wilson, Leigh Anne Clark, Cadillac’s Michael Simcoe, Alexandra and Matthew Looney, and Sotheby’s Michael Macaulay who served as the evening’s auctioneer.