Past Events 2024
Past Events 2024
| Date | Event | Speaker/Topic | Venue |
| Jan 9 | Dinner | Annual Meeting: State of the Club | NAC |
| Feb 13 | Dinner | Raclette | Léna |
| Mar 12 | Dinner | Clémence Boulouque on Audrey Hepburn | NAC |
| April 9 | Apéro | Après-work Apéro 6-7:30 | Café 1, 2, 3 |
| April 24 | Cocktail | April in Paris | Boucherie Union Square |
| May 7 | Cocktail Dînatoire | Cocktail dînatoire 7:15 – 8:45, honoring Jérôme Lohez 9/11 Foundation Scholarship winners | Café 1, 2, 3 |
| May 14 | Reception | New Members 2023 & 2024 | Château Village |
| May 18 | Festival | Festival des auteurs francophones en Amérique organisé par Rencontre des auteurs francophones 12 – 8 pm | OCabanon |
| June 4 | Dinner | David Lincoln Ross – Wine Tasting | NAC |
| July 9 | Cruise | Pre-Bastille Sail | Classic Harbor Line | 62 Chelsea Piers |
| July 14 | Fête | Bastille Day | Madison Ave (btw 59 & 63rd) |
| Sept 24 | Dinner | Speaker David Doty | NAC |
| Oct 8 | Apéro | Après-work Apéro 7-8:30 | Café 1, 2, 3 |
| Oct 15 | Dinner | William S Hearst | NAC |
| Nov 12 | Cocktail | Soirée d’automne | NAC |
| Dec 10 | Dinner | Chanteuse Margot Sergent | NAC |
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November 12, 2024, 7 pm | Soirée d’automne Cocktail Dînatoire | National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South (East 20th St) New York, NY 10003
We had a good turnout for our signature event of the season, La Soirée d’automne. In contrast to our sit-down dinners, we had the opportunity to socialize freely with members and friends, a great way to inaugurate New York’s social season.
Passed hors d’oeuvres included:
Fig & brie pizzetta
Vegetable summer rolls
Smoked salmon on cucumber round w/dill cream
Pan-seared rare tuna
Miniature Beef Wellington in puff pastry
Chicken Satay w/peanut sauce
NAC Homemade Cookies
But, of course, a selection of free-flowing French wines, bien sûr!
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October 15, 2024, 7 pm | Dinner with William S Hearst | National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South (East 20th St) New York, NY 10003
William S. Hearst was Senior Vice President of Associate Labor Relations and Human Resources for Bloomingdale’s Stores: the 59th Street Flagship, 32 Department Stores, and 13 Outlets nationwide.
A 1974 graduate of Cornell University, Bill holds an A.B. degree in Music and American History with substantial coursework in Industrial and Labor Relations. Upon graduation, Bill embarked on a dual career at Bloomingdale’s, as well as a professional organist and choirmaster. At Bloomingdale’s, Bill progressed through 19 different positions that spanned Operations, Fashion Buying, Store Management, and most recently Corporate Human Resources. Simultaneously, Bill cultivated a full Episcopal liturgical music career in organ performance, choir building, and conducting. After 29 years, Bill retired from his church music career in 2004, focusing exclusively on Bloomingdale’s. A passion for music performance, however, continues unabated. Bill and his wife Joan are native New Yorkers who raised their three children, Billy, Mary, and Andrew.
Bill Hearst was Chairman of the Board of the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, a relationship that began in 1964 when he was a student at the original Stecher and Horowitz School of Music. An avid opera enthusiast, Bill spends a portion of each day maintaining piano repertoire and performing in small ensembles with friends.
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October 8, 2024, 7 pm | Après-work Apéro | Café Un, Deux, Trois | 123 West 44th Street, New York, NY
Members and friends joined for wine and hors d’oeuvres at this classic French restaurant in the theater district.
Feel free to practice your possibly fractured French.
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September 24, 2024, 7 pm | Dinner | National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South (East 20th St) New York, NY 10003
We were delighted to have PAC member David Doty as speaker at our kick-off of the fall season.
David talked about his personal journey on becoming a Francophile and Francophone, with which many of our American members could identify. He also discussed the French influences (sculpture, painiing, interior) found in the National Arts Club.
The following is adapted from an article in The Village Sun, June 1, 2022
National Arts Club said ‘oui’ to David Doty as president
[Doty served as president of the Board of Governors from 2022 to 2024.]
David Doty brings professional marketing and digital media experience, plus a wealth of cultural knowledge — specifically, deep expertise in French art and architecture — to the leadership role. He has been a member of the historic Gramercy Park South club since 2006, serving on its board of governors since 2018. He was elected the board’s president on May 19.
Doty is an expert on the arts, architecture and culture of France. He taught the “History of Paris” course for seven years at The New School. He has been a featured lecturer in English and in French at the Florence Gould Hall at the Alliance Française, where he presented to sold-out audiences his theories and observations about Vincent Van Gogh, as well as the art and architecture of Paris, Brittany and Provence, among other French locales.
Doty is the recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, conferred by former President Jacques Chirac of France. He holds a Master of Art from the University of Michigan and lives in the Flatiron District and in Wainscott, in the Hamptons.
Doty is also a leader in digital marketing and a featured speaker at media conferences around the globe. Using his experience to serve the N.A.C., he has chaired the club’s Branding & Marketing Committee and has worked to raise the club’s public profile. He has leveraged his professional relationships to bring in corporate donations, including from Google and Amazon, to the N.A.C., which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
As for his writing, Doty’s articles have been featured in Forbes, Departures, GQ, Wired, Gourmet, Travel & Leisure, Zagat Guides and “Frommer’s Guide to New York City.” He was also a research assistant for Tom Wolfe on his seminal book on modern architecture, “From Bauhaus to Our House.”
In 2018, Doty launched his own advisory firm, DD Digital Perspectives, after 11 years as executive vice president and chief marketing officer of IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), which he helped transform into the leading trade body in digital media. Previously, he was director of marketing for Booz Allen Hamilton, a global consulting firm.
Founded in 1898, the National Arts Club is a nonprofit with a mission to stimulate, foster and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts. Annually, the club offers more than 150 free programs to the public, including exhibitions, theatrical and musical performances, lectures and readings, attracting an audience of more than 25,000 members and guests. Feature programs focus on all disciplines of the arts.
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July 9, 2024 | 7:00 pm | Pre-Bastille Sail | Classic Harbor Line | 62 Chelsea Piers, New York, NY 10011
Franck Litzler
June 4, 2024 | 7:00 pm | Dinner |
National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South (East 20th St) New York, NY 10003
Member David Lincoln Ross hosted a wine tasting during the dinner, featuring Roseblood d’Estoublon Rosé, Folies de Coudraies Sauvignon Blanc, and Bourgogne-Epineuil Moutard-Diligent.
Reflecting a lifelong passion for immersive travel experiences, a love of French culture and its wines, and its diverse regional foods, in January 2020, David launched Ross Wine Tours serving clients who wish to visit and meet French wine château owners and winemakers in Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, and Cognac. Visit: www.rosswinetours.com
As a wordsmith, he has a record of successfully creating and executing a wide range of marketing, communications, and media consulting projects. Work includes direct response, advertorials, sponsored content, online and print editorial creation and public-relations messaging for U.S. and global clients from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups. A passionate, experienced storyteller and talented speechwriter. he possesses excellent interpersonal skills, a lively sense of humor and genuine joie de vivre.
Served from 2013-215 as Editorial Director, Friends of Hermione-Lafayette in America, Inc., an American French non-profit that celebrates the history and spirit of Marquis de Lafayette’s voyage to America in 1780 aboard the Hermione ‘Freedom Frigate’, in support of our fight for independence. A full-scale reconstructed tall ship, called the Hermione, visited the U.S. in 2015.
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Tuesday, May 14, 2024 New Member Reception
The President and Board of Directors of the Paris American Club
thank those of you who joined recently and were delighted to welcome you to the
New Member Reception
Tuesday, May 14th
Château Village, 1 Minetta STREET, Apt 2E
There was a brief presentation on the State of the Club, personal introductions by each new member, Q & A, and open forum for exchanging ideas, followed by a buffet supper. Pastries compliments of member Hanafi Hadjeres.
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 | 7:15 – 8:45 pm | Cocktail Dînatoire, Congratulations Jérôme Lohez 9/11 Scholarship Awardees | Café Un, Deux, Trois | 123 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036
We joined in congratulating this year’s awardees:
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Wednesday, April 24, 2024 | 7:00 – 9:00 pm | April in Paris Soirée | Boucherie Union Square | 225 Park Avenue South (between E 18th & 19th Streets), New York, NY 10003
Members and their guests attended our festive spring event: “April in Paris,” where a selection of French wines, une planche de charcuterie et de fromage, tartare de thon, tartelettes au chèvre, shrimp cocktail, and beef sliders were served.
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April 9, 2024 | 6:00 – 7:30 pm | Après-work Apéro | Café Un, Deux, Trois | 123 West 44th Street, New York, NY
Members and friends got together for a casual apéro and hors d’ouvres. This was also an opportunity to practice one’s possibly fractured français.
Registration includes hors d’oeuvres and wine. As usual, Manager Pablo Manzo and his staff were very generous.
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Tuesday, March 12, 2024 | 7:00 pm |Dinner | National Arts Club | 15 Gramercy Park South (East 20th St)
Clémence Boulouque
Clémence’s topic was Audrey Hepburn and the Mystery of Grace.
A graduate from the Paris Institute of Political Studies and the ESSEC Business School, Boulouque spent some time in a recruiting firm before moving to New York City for the first time, where she won a Fulbright scholarship and studied for a master’s degree in international relations at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University (2001–2002).
After returning to France, Boulouque devoted herself to writing, journalism, and literary criticism from 2002 to 2007. In 2003, she wrote her first novel, Mort d’un silence, in which she tells the long ordeal that she and her family lived when her father committed suicide. The book was awarded with the Prix Fénéon in the same year. She wrote in particular for the French magazines Le Figaro littéraire, Transfuge, and Lire. She regularly intervened as a chronicler in the program Tout arrive [fr] by Arnaud Laporte on France Culture. She was the producer of the series of programs such as À voix nue with Toni Morrison or Amos Oz, as well as a summer series about Marguerite Yourcenar. In 2005, William Karel directed the film adaptation of her first novel, titled La Fille du juge.
Boulouque returned to the United States in 2008 and was awarded a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies and History from New York University in 2014. Afterwards, Boulouque completed her postdoctoral training at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania, where she joined the New Perspectives on the Origins, Context and Diffusion of the Academic Study of Judaism fellowship (2014–2015). She currently teaches as the Carl and Bernice Witten Associate Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia. Her courses of instruction include religion and the movies as well as Masterpieces of Western Literature and Philosophy.
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Tuesday, February 13, 2024 | 7:00 pm|Raclette Dinner
Léna Wine Bar |10 Morton Street (btw Bleecker & Seventh Ave) | New York, NY 10014
Our intrepid members braved the weather, after all, what’s un peu de neige! After a plate of escargots, foie gras and roasted brie, we made raclette (a dish consisting of cheese melted over a fire and then scraped onto boiled potatoes) in this casual, intimate West Village wine bar.
Léna’s owner Pierre and his staff actually did all the work!
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Tuesday, January 9, 2024 | 7:00 pm | Dinner and Annual Meeting | National Arts Club | 15 Gramercy Park South (East 20th St), New York, NY 10003
We took a look at what has been happening with our club over the past year and met some of our new board members for the 2024-26 term. See report on the homepage of this website.
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Calendar of Meetings for 2024
| Date | Event | Speaker/Topic | Venue |
| Jan 9 | Dinner | Annual Meeting: State of the Club | NAC |
| Feb 13 | Dinner | Raclette | Léna |
| Mar 12 | Dinner | Clémence Boulouque on Audrey Hepburn | NAC |
| April 9 | Apéro | Après-work Apéro 6-7:30 | Café 1, 2, 3 |
| April 24 | Cocktail | April in Paris | Boucherie Union Square |
| May 7 | Cocktail Dînatoire | Cocktail dînatoire 7:15 – 8:45, honoring Jérôme Lohez 9/11 Foundation Scholarship winners | Café 1, 2, 3 |
| May 14 | Reception | New Members 2023 & 2024 | Château Village |
| May 18 | Festival | Festival des auteurs francophones en Amérique organisé par Rencontre des auteurs francophones 12 – 8 pm | OCabanon |
| June 4 | Dinner | David Lincoln Ross – Wine Tasting | NAC |
| July 9 | Cruise | Pre-Bastille Sail | Classic Harbor Line | 62 Chelsea Piers |
| July 14 | Fête | Bastille Day | Madison Ave (btw 59 & 63rd) |
| Sept 24 | Dinner | Speaker David Doty | NAC |
| Oct 8 | Apéro | Après-work Apéro 7-8:30 | Café 1, 2, 3 |
| Oct 15 | Dinner | William S Hearst | NAC |
| Nov 12 | Cocktail | Soirée d’automne | NAC |
| Dec 10 | Dinner | Chanteuse Margot Sergent | NAC |
![](https://parisamericanclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/State-2023_Page_01.jpg")