Tales from the Non-Aspirational: the Whitney Art Party 2026

HSR correspondant, artist Tasneem Sarkez bravely brings her trademark wit to the vibelessness of one of those Exclusive Art Parties... in NYC!!! It was vampireville, duh. Reader, you're better off in the streets...

Walking in through the clear glass doors of the Whitney museum in 10 degree weather, to the Dare djing in front of Glenn Ligon’s Rückenfigur (2009), amidst a crowd of millennials who paid for the price to feel like an emerging artist, made the work come full circle in a way that for a split second the stupidity of the room faded to a whisper and I heard Ligon screaming in my ear saying "You seeee!!!”

The Whitney art party is a fundraising event, particularly shaped by what the Whitney imagines to be their “young and cool networks…” The average age in the room was at least 37. And the party ended at midnight with no afters… The People weren’t even drunk or coked out enough to start giving me their real thoughts on Whitney, the party, or the “art world” for that matter.

The young and cool art crowd kept finding each other gasping for air in between conversations with older folk who related that they were a member of the Whitney, and that they paid for their ticket, but that on top of all of that they’re an "aspiring painter.”

The best part of the party was finding the similarly minded young people laughing at how gimmicky this all felt. Drinking into the irony of the situation, because the meme “is the art world in the room with us rn?” never felt more true. None of it felt real, nor pertinent, but it all made sense when you think about the pretentiousness the art world likes to manufacture.

“It’s all the people that want to be around the cooler younger crowd–without the cooler younger crowd”

The PR team was trying to drink from an empty fountain of youth. Why have the dare dj when 75% of that room don’t know who he is, and an even smaller percentage could understand why “the dare” and “the whitney museum” being in the same sentence is a funny joke.

The elevator bar went up and down all night offering people tequila shots as drunken art fans walked around the floors of the Whitney, making sure to have a photoshoot in front of the latest exhibitions.

Random woman: “Is it over?? Or is it just dead??

Elevator Bartenders:

“I’ve been going up and down all night…super fun though”