Don’t put down that champagne flute just yet!
The Brooklyn Arts Council toasted its outgoing president Ella Weiss at a gala last Wednesday, the third such goodbye party for high-profile Brooklyn arts head in as many weeks. The party comes after Brooklyn Museum paid tribute to its retiring director Arnold Lehman with a bash on April 15, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music honored its departing president Karen Brooks Hopkins at a celebration also on April 29.
Weiss served 16 years as the head of the arts organization — which provides grants, training, and resources to the borough’s creative class — and said she was honored to have had the chance to mentor many aspiring young artists and arts administrators during her tenure.
“These bright minds and creative ingenues represent the connection between art and social equality and how the universal language of the arts transcends boundaries,” she said.
Prior to her appointment in 1999, Weiss worked as the assistant vice president Brooklyn College. Adding to her Kings County bona fides, she also earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the college, and spent eight years working at its Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts. Weiss said she has no immediate plans for her new-found free time, but plans to spend it in Brooklyn.
The salute to Weiss was part of the council’s annual Alive With Art benefit gala, which also paid tribute to legendary hip-hop impresario and graffiti artist Cey Adams, and Michael Pressman, who has directed several movies including “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze” and “Doctor Detroit,” and has worked as a director and producer on television shows including “Picket Fences” and “Blue Bloods.”