Last night, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined Arts for the Aging for its 26th annual gala, at the Anderson House of the Society of the Cincinnati.
The Notorious RBG accepted the Sarnoff Award named for AFTA founder Lolo Sarnoff. Ginsburg is known to be a fond patron of arts, often attending operas (sometimes with opera-watching buddy Justice Antonin Scalia). She also participates, acting in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's annual Mock Trial. Tomorrow, she'll be reading in "Our War" on Arena Stage. She's even a character in an opera, thanks to Derrick Wang's creation, Scalia/Ginsburg.
Dorothy and Bill McSweeny, center, presented the Sarnoff Award to their friend, Justice Ginsburg. We snapped Bill shaking hands with the night's emcee, painter Bill Dunlap, as AFTA CEO Janine Tursini looks on.
Upstairs in the Anderson House, we snapped gala vice chair Sheila Switzer, program chairman at Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide, with Welcome to Washington diplomatic liaison Sandy Taylor. Arts for the Aging engages older adults' creativity and self-expression with arts from painting to dance. Proceeds from the gala go toward sending AFTA's teaching artists to conduct workshops for older adults throughout DC.
The Verge Ensemble—cellist Tobias Werner and pianist Audrey Andrist— delighted the crowd with a performance of Astor Piazzolla's Le Grand Tango and a Rachmaninoff sonata, after which Ginsburg came up for a talk with Tobias. Later in the evening, as part of a toast by the Downtown Clusters Geriatric Day Care Center, Ginsburg was serenaded by AFTA teaching artist Miles Spicer. He played guitar and sang I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter and the guests sang along.
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