The Corcoran Celebrates The Here and NOW!

Be sure to check out all 120 of our photographs from this event HERE and tell us what you were wearing that night!

NORTHWEST -- Contemporary art has always found a friend in the city's Corcoran Gallery of Art. And with the September launch of the museum's new NOW at the Corcoran program (a series highlighting the work of emerging and mid-career artists), Washington's modern art landscape was injected with an additional dose of energy.

So, if you're one of D.C.'s top art destinations with one of the city's most anticipated new exhibitions, how do you celebrate? Why, with a blowout party of course!

And party into the wee hours Washingtonians did on Friday at the Corcoran's, aptly titled, 'NOW at Night' celebration.

Equal parts cocktail party, dessert buffet, art exhibit, discussion series, and concert, last week's late night soiree attracted hundreds of the city's contemporary art lovers to the gallery's stately inner halls.

Anyone who has attended one of the Corcoran's evening celebrations in the past know what a treat it is to enter the museum to a wicked, thumping beat, with the cavernous central hallway backlit, as if it had a twinkle in its eye.

Friday night's bash divided the Corcoran's first floor into two sections, with the DJs and dance floor on one side and an open bar and lounge area on the other. Thievery Corporation's ESL Music artist Thunderball served as the evening's purveyors of sound and were deft at keeping the crowd in an adventurous mood.

Unlike with some of the gallery's parties, where portions of the museum are sometimes closed off to keep the festivities centralized, 'NOW at Night' was first and foremost a celebration of the exhibits themselves. Accordingly, most doors remained wide open on Friday night thereby allowing guests to spread out across the sprawling complex to admire the many works of art and sculpture on display.

While Spencer Finch's "Passing Cloud" easily evoked the most wonderment, with its pale blue foils filling the ceiling of the Corcoran's grand rotunda, the artist's "Open Cloud" fluorescent light sculpture was equally impressive, as were his many surrounding photographs and drawings.

VIP ticketholders that night were even privy to an exclusive pre-reception inside the Director's office where Chris Martin, another NOW program artist, led a discussion about his upcoming 2011 exhibition for the museum.

Sadly, when the clock struck midnight, the party came to a close. In addition to the proceeds from ticket sales, 'NOW at Night' raised $3,000 in support of the gallery's contemporary art program.

An after party at the W Washington, D.C.'s Living Room Bar attracted a particularly stylish crowd, with carefully crafted specialty cocktails flowing well into the early hours.

For one night at least, D.C. got to truly live in the here and NOW...

Be sure to check out all 120 of our photographs from this event HERE and tell us what you were wearing that night!