Last night in Venice the Indianapolis Museum of Art threw a gala dinner at the famed Cipriani Hotel for Allora & Calzadilla, the half-Puerto Rican, half-American duo representing the United States in the Venice Biennale in a pavilion organized by Lisa Freiman, a curator at the museum. The show, featuring Olympic athletes interacting with sculptures that critique forms of U.S. power and consumption, has generated enormous buzz both before the Biennale and during the first day of previews — and accordingly there was an A-list crowd that turned out to celebrate the endeavor.

Wearing a white vintage Carolina Herrera dress, Freiman spoke to the gathered luminaries in a cavernous brick hall with the rays of a sun grandly projected against the far wall. On hand were MoMA director Glenn Lowry, Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong, Whitney director Adam Weinberg, and Performa director RoseLee Goldberg — four of America's most influential figures when it comes to contemporary art — as well as a few of the athletic stars of Allora & Calzadilla's "Gloria" spectacle, like gymnast Dave Durante and dancer Sadie Wilhelmi. 

Addressing IMA director Maxwell Anderson, Freiman said, "You are an open-minded visionary and you are the best director a curator could ever have," adding that she asked to carry out the ambitious pavilion project at a time "when our country was in the greatest recession since the great depression and you said yes and I asked for something ridiculous."

View Slideshow: Gymnasts and Art-World MVPs Turn Out for the Indianapolis Museum's Lavish U.S. Pavilion Party in Venice

In his own speech, Anderson ironically noted that the theme was appropriate for the museum — since Indianapolis is "the amateur sports capital of the world."

For pictures from the party, click the slide show at left.