TIME100 Art Honorees Toast to Imagination, Inspiration, and Influence Across Generations

Honorees at TIME’s first TIME100 Art Impact Dinner gathered in New York City on October 5, bringing together artists, collectors, curators, museum executives, dealers, advisors, and cultural stewards.Guests attended the dinner to celebrate the launch of the first ever TIME100 Art list.Here’s what each of them toasted to.Ronald LauderLauder, who was honored on the list for his collecting, philanthropy, and founding of Neue Galerie New York, began his toast by chronicling the beginning of his love of art at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) when he was just 12 years old.“On one of my trips, I encountered Picasso’s Guernica…although I didn’t understand it at first, I went home and learned about the Spanish Civil War,” Lauder said. “I began to understand that art could do more than inspire—it could preserve history and expand the way we see the world.”Lauder said he would sometimes spend an entire museum visit in one singular room, looking at each painting from every angle. It was this devotion that launched his love of art.Years later, he explained in the toast, MOMA is still an inspiration to him as an art collector, after he spent 10 years as chairman of the museum.“Today, it is espec...