The Art of Giving: Hunt Slonem to Be Honored at Casita Maria’s Fiesta 2026

Celebrated artist joins Sonia Gutt de Haime among honorees at The Plaza

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Hunt Slonem has spent a career filling canvases with bunnies, butterflies, tropical birds and exuberant color. This October, the internationally celebrated artist will step away from the studio and into The Plaza ballroom as one of the honorees of Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education’s Fiesta 2026.

The honor creates an intersection between an artist whose work celebrates imagination and a New York institution that has spent more than nine decades encouraging young people to discover their own creativity. Founded in East Harlem in 1934 and now based in the South Bronx, Casita Maria works to enrich youth, families and communities through arts, culture and education. Its free educational programming combines arts instruction, academic assistance and youth development, reaching young people from kindergarten through middle school.

Hunt Slonem will be honored alongside art dealer and longtime cultural figure Sonia Gutt de Haime, while the Jackie Weld Drake Living Legend Award will be presented to Ben Rodriguez-Cubeñas, vice chairman of Casita Maria’s board of directors. The black-tie evening will feature cocktails, followed by dinner and music by Bob Hardwick Sound.

For Hunt Slonem, the evening also underscores the enduring relationship between established artists and the next generation. His distinctive neo-expressionist paintings have made his recurring bunnies, butterflies and tropical birds instantly recognizable, while his work is represented in the permanent collections of some 250 museums around the world, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Fiesta 2026 celebrates Casita Maria’s 92nd anniversary, continuing a tradition that brings together supporters from the worlds of art, culture, philanthropy and New York society to help sustain its work with children and families in the South Bronx and East Harlem.

The evening is chaired by Jacqueline Weld Drake, HRH Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia and Jean Shafiroff, with Fiesta Dinner Chairmen George Corton, Sissi Isabel Fleitas-Refaie, Norah Haime, and Mary Snow. The broader leadership roster includes figures from the worlds of art, fashion, design and philanthropy, among them Santiago Calatrava, Carolina Herrera, Wes Gordon, Julio Larraz, Juan Montoya, Daisy Soros and Lynn Wyatt.

For Hunt Slonem, an artist whose career has transformed the natural world into a highly personal visual language, the recognition brings another kind of art into focus: helping ensure that a new generation has the opportunity to find a creative language of its own.

About Hunt Slonem:
Hunt Slonem is an American neo-expressionist artist recognized for his paintings of rabbits, butterflies and tropical birds, as well as sculpture and his restoration of historic properties. Inspired by nature and the exotic birds with which he lives and works, Slonem has developed a distinctive visual language built around repetition, vivid color and expressive brushwork. His work is represented in the permanent collections of approximately 250 museums worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Joan Miró Foundation and New Orleans Museum of Art.

For more information, please visit: www.huntslonem.com
IG: @huntslonem

Norah Lawlor
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