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Goodbye to ‘the best dinner party in town’: One last look at Dallas’ Two x Two gala

The glamorous art auction elevated the city’s national profile and attracted celebs like Alan Cumming, Sharon Stone and Jerry Jones, but after 25 years, its era is coming to an end.

As the sun faded through the glass walls of his modern home, Howard Rachofsky began to say goodbye to the gala he built.

“It’s bittersweet, but it’s time,” he told the audience, who had gathered in late September for an early peek at contemporary art pieces being auctioned at the final Two x Two gala on Oct. 19.

Why This Story Matters
Since its founding in 1999, the Two x Two art gala and auction has raised $120 million for AIDS research and the Dallas Museum of Art. This year will be its last. Its departure represents a major loss to the Dallas arts scene.

For 25 years, Howard and his wife Cindy have hosted the gala, a joint benefit for the Dallas Museum of Art and amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, at their 10,000-square-foot home. Most of their art and furniture gets moved out so auction pieces can be installed on each of the three stories, and over the years they have opened their doors to high rollers, cutting-edge artists, Hollywood celebrities like Sharon Stone and Alan Cumming and sports legends like Jerry Jones and Dirk Nowitzki. The lavish outdoor shindig, held in recent years under a geodesic dome on the front lawn, has featured Diana Ross, Ricky Martin and CeeLo Green as musical headliners.

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“The best dinner party in town” is how one gala regular described Two x Two. Another called it “Dallas’ Met Gala,” with its mix of fabulous dresses and high art. The gala has transformed the city’s status among the global art set. As a 2022 Vanity Fair story put it, “For the contemporary art world, Texas is Dallas, and that started with Two x Two.”

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It also became the top annual fundraiser for the Dallas Museum of Art and the largest fundraiser in the U.S. for amfAR, netting $120 million.

But it was going away. The reason given, and echoed among many people I interviewed, was that it was simply time. A quarter-century was long enough to give over your home for weeks at a stretch. If there was a more private reason, it would stay private. (The Rachofskys declined to talk to me for this story.)

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That night in late September was a preview dinner sponsored by Capital One and the Cultivist, one of the lead-up events to the gala. The evening included a dinner by chef Thomas Keller, of the French Laundry and Per Se.

“I want to thank Cindy and Howard for all the work they’ve done these past 25 years,” Keller said, as guests sat at two long tables. “I just have one question. I’ve only been coming for eight or nine years, so for 16 years I didn’t get invited?”

Two x Two was that kind of bash: Even one of the world’s great chefs wanted more.

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Cindy and Howard Rachofsky are seen at a Sept. 26 dinner by Thomas Keller, one of the events...
Cindy and Howard Rachofsky are seen at a Sept. 26 dinner by Thomas Keller, one of the events leading up to final Two x Two gala on Oct. 19, 2024.(Bre Johnson/BFA.com / Bre Johnson/BFA.com)

A win-win-win-win

The unlikely road to Two x Two began in the late ‘90s, when amfAR wondered if Dallas might be a fertile spot for a gala. Founded in the mid-’80s, in part by Elizabeth Taylor, the powerhouse nonprofit had started throwing glitzy fundraising events outside New York and Los Angeles, and perhaps Dallas could host one.

“Stop right there,” Deedie Rose remembers saying. Rose was the president of the Dallas Museum of Art board of trustees at the time, and she worried Dallas galas were maxed out. The arts district Rose had championed was still in its planning stages, and the idea of a coastal event swooping in to drain Dallas’ deep pockets wasn’t appealing.

“She didn’t need New York competition. I didn’t blame her,” said Anne Livet, the New York arts fundraiser who’d been tapped with this liaison, since she grew up and began her career in Fort Worth. Livet wondered if there was some middle ground: What if amfAR put up the money, sent in celebrities, but split the proceeds with a local arts institution like the DMA? Would that fly?

“It was a win-win,” Rose told me, although actually, she kept adding “wins.” She called it a win-win-win-win, as if to underline the success.

The concept was to solicit donated art for an auction. “The name flew into my head,” Livet said. Since it was two different organizations and two different kinds of charities, she dubbed it, “Two x Two for AIDS and Art.” A new Dallas tradition was born. “It was one of the most successful events I ever did,” said Livet, “but I can’t take credit for it.”

That credit goes to Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, the couple who became synonymous with Two x Two. The son of a Dallas pawn shop owner, Howard Rachofsky made his fortune as a hedge fund manager and became an avid collector of contemporary art. In the ‘90s, he contracted Richard Meier, the architect of Los Angeles’ Getty Center and Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, to build a house just north of the intersection at Preston Road and Northwest Highway. The Rachofsky House became a local gem, but crucially, it became the home of the Two x Two annual fete, which launched in 1999.

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Built by architect Richard Meier, the Rachofsky house is a local gem and the locale of the...
Built by architect Richard Meier, the Rachofsky house is a local gem and the locale of the annual Two x Two for AIDS and Art gala.(Mark Lamster / Staff writer)

Many galas, however elegant, must contend with the sterile banquet hall of a hotel, but Two x Two offered the allure of peeking inside one of Dallas’ most elegant private residences.

“It’s a shame you have such a lousy house,” cracked guest Stanley Tucci in 2005. AmfAR had made good on its promise to send celebrities: Sigourney Weaver, Liza Minnelli and Shirley MacLaine all came. Art-world icons like Robert Rauschenberg and Julian Schnabel were honored.

“It changed the nature of the scene,” said Laura Carpenter, central to the gala’s creation and a gallery owner in Dallas before ultimately moving to Santa Fe. “There weren’t a lot of people collecting contemporary art. All of a sudden, Two x Two was the thing to do.”

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Attendees mingled inside the Rachofsky house for the Two x Two for AIDS and Art gala in 2017.
Attendees mingled inside the Rachofsky house for the Two x Two for AIDS and Art gala in 2017.(Kevin Tachman / TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art)

‘This party is over too early’

The exclusive black-tie gala grew to 450 guests, and its scope expanded. In 2009, a group of insiders were sitting around after the crowds dispersed. Cindy Rachofsky pulled out champagne for the group, along with potato chips to dip in sour cream and caviar. “This party is over too early,” someone said, and the following year, the after-party was born.

“That’s how good things come. It’s not forced,” said Todd Fiscus, the event planner whose wild visions have helped bring the gala to life. “We start thinking about next year the week after the party. By Tuesday, Cindy and I are texting back and forth.”

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About 15 years ago, the Rachofskys added a “First Look” preview event, allowing people who couldn’t attend the gala to enjoy the art, and that became a spectacle in itself. (This year’s First Look, cheekily called Last Look, will be Oct. 10.) One year, Fiscus transformed the front lawn into a winter wonderland, replete with artificial snow and figure skaters performing in an ice-skating rink.

In 2013, the gala moved from a backyard tent to a 48-foot-tall geodesic dome on the front lawn. Fiscus remembers Howard asking for a structure that was as interesting as his home but not in competition with it. Fiscus found the answer in a European manufacturer called Freedomes. The triangle tiles and spherical shape of the dome made the ideal geometric complement to the clean white squares of the Rachofsky House. “They look like beautiful sisters,” Fiscus said.

In 2013, the gala moved from a backyard tent to a 48-foot-tall geodesic dome on the front...
In 2013, the gala moved from a backyard tent to a 48-foot-tall geodesic dome on the front lawn. The dome's design in 2017 (above) was awash in green. Each year, event planner Todd Fiscus reimagines the space.(Kevin Tachman / TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art)
Attendees of the 2016 gala saw the geodesic dome on the lawn of the Rachofsky House colored...
Attendees of the 2016 gala saw the geodesic dome on the lawn of the Rachofsky House colored in pink.(Courtesy Todd Fiscus/ToddEvents)
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As epic as the parties could be, just as eye-popping was the amount of money raised. To put the $120 million into perspective, consider that the Cattle Baron’s Ball, one of the premier Dallas-area fundraisers, has netted about $100 million in 50 years, while Two x Two has made more in half the time.

Such a feat involves the savvy of people behind the scenes, including executive director Melissa Ireland and director of auction Megan Gratch. In 2019, art advisor John Runyon came on board as co-host, with his wife Lisa.

“The secret to our success in the auction is that Howard and I take past bidders through by appointment leading up to the event,” said Runyon. The weeks before the gala are given over to these private consultations that introduce collectors to new work and connect them to gallery owners, many of whom fly in from Paris and Los Angeles and New York for the night of the big event.

Nicolas Party is the featured artist at the 2024 Two x Two for AIDS and Art gala. His...
Nicolas Party is the featured artist at the 2024 Two x Two for AIDS and Art gala. His painting, "Landscape," is among the pieces up for auction.(Adam Reich)
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Voljtech Kovarik's "Journey Through the Past," is one of the pieces up for auction at the...
Voljtech Kovarik's "Journey Through the Past," is one of the pieces up for auction at the 2024 Two x Two for AIDS and Art gala.(Galerie Derouillon)

All of this has created an ecosystem that raises the profiles of contemporary artists, like Swiss-born painter and sculptor Nicolas Party, whose work will be highlighted at this year’s event. It has also enabled the DMA to fill out its contemporary collection with acquisitions including the complete set of editions by Gerhard Richter and one of the Infinity Rooms by Yayoi Kusama.

But the gala’s end leaves a hole, and questions. Will anything take its place?

“There will never be another Two x Two,” said Aschelle Morgan, spokesperson for the DMA, although the museum hopes to keep building on its energy. “We’re planning to move our Art Ball to October, something we typically host in the spring, and we hope that’s a way to honor this institutional momentum.”

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As for what’s in store for the final gala on Oct. 19, event planner Todd Fiscus wouldn’t spill. Part of the delight of Two x Two has been the surprise: How the dome will be transformed, what intricate delights await. He did make one prediction.

“I think it’s gonna be a tear-fest,” he said. “I’m loaded up on Kleenex.”

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