Welcome to the 2010 Newport Season!

Newport, Rhode Island, "America's First Resort", icon of the Gilded Age, is as sassy and unique as ever, and the fabulous fundraisers, sailing races, festivals, parties, and outdoor life are all underway after a dreary spring.

What did our snowbirds miss this winter? The fabulous Christmas Dinner Dance of The Preservation Society at The Breakers, Child & Family's "A Taste of Newport", performances of "The Nutcracker" and "Dracula" by the Island Moving Company, the Governor's Ball at Salve Regina, The Newport Art Museum's lecture series, opening with Dr. Darrell West assessing President Obama's first year, the Great Gatsby series, the Tourneés French Film Festival...........all of which can be found, and savored, in our archived news.

I keep musing over the dinner table that Newport in many ways parallels 18th century Bath, England: a center of high culture at a distance from the main commercial capital, providing a combination of relaxation with an overlay of health, enjoyment of the waters, and numbers of socialites who (from a utilitarian point of view) engage themselves in ranking. Such a place required its social arbiter, and it had one: Beau Nash.

In 1704, Beau (née Richard) Nash became the Master of Ceremonies at the rising spa town of Bath in Somerset England, a position he retained until his death. He played a leading role in making Bath the most fashionable resort in 18th-century England, meeting new arrivals to the city and judging whether they were suitable to join the select “Company” of 500 to 600 people at the center of Bath society. He matched ladies with appropriate dancing partners at each ball, paid the musicians at such events, brokered marriages, escorted unaccompanied wives, and regulated gambling.

Newport Seen therefore has decided to create an annual Beau Nash Award, although the modern “duties” are in no way parallel, and will confer its first award on Ross Cann, AIA, who, as head of the Newport Architectural Forum, architect, and writer on historic buildings, keeps the history of, and respect for, this city foremost in all his many professional, social, and sporting endeavors.

May 30, 2010 marked the shocking and sudden passing of Dr. Mark Malkovich III, for 32 years the director and guiding spirit of the world renowned Newport Music Festival, while visiting in Minnesota, just days before the first volunteers meeting was scheduled. At that meeting, the family said that this year’s Festival will be dedicated to Dr. Malkovich’s memory. With the musical schedule completely in place, and the booklets distributed, the Festival will begin on July 9, and run through the 25th. Newport Seen sends it sincerest condolences to the members of the Malkovich family. The caesura that he leaves in Newport's cultural life is endless.

Another notable passing was that in February of Gilbert Kahn, an Annenberg and son of the late Janet Annenberg Hooker and the late L. Stanley Kahn, who died suddenly at his Palm Beach home. Mr. Kahn, a nephew of the late Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg, was active in numerous philanthropic organizations in Miami, Palm Beach, New York City and Newport, RI. A former director of The Metropolitan Opera, and a member of the board of overseers for the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Mr. Kahn served ably as a board member of the Newport Art Museum and the Preservation Society of Newport County.

Peter de Savary with Monty, NS's Marion Laffey Fox

& Gene Michael Addis

Oh, and Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle and winner of the 2010 America's Cup, bought Mrs. Astor's Beechwood, while Peter de Savary, the "King of Clubs", returning to Newport, purchased Vanderbilt Hall to become a private membership club.....

--LP, Editor-in-Chief

Calendar of Events