Jonah Hill, Jan de Bont at the Santa Monica Museum of Art

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Celebrating ‘The Power of Ten’ at the Santa Monica Museum of Art paid off handsomely for some partygoers, as ticket prices included the opportunity to win one of 25 original artworks.

With the shindig marking executive director Elsa Longhauser’s 10th anniversary, artist George Herms pointed out the inscription, ‘for Elsa,’ on the mixed media-collage he donated for the occasion. Roger Herman, an Expressionist painter, said he contributed a ceramic bowl because the museum had previously shown his ceramic pots. Collage artist Barbara Kruger incorporated into her digital print the invitation’s 10 descriptive words for the Santa Monica museum, among them ‘authentic, dynamic, inventive and agile.’

‘Elsa has done a very precise program, showing some of the most remarkable artists whose work might have otherwise been overlooked,’ said Paul Schimmel, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art. ‘And it hasn’t been easy. She’s done it by hook and by crook, and she’s kept it pure.’

More than 300 artists and Santa Monica museum supporters joined the party, including film directors Jan de Bont, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris; actor Jonah Hill of ‘Superbad;’ MOCA president Jeffrey Soros, and his wife, Catharine; and Billie Milam Weisman, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation. Among the Santa Monica museum board members present were Peter Gelles, David Nochimson, Steve Buxbaum, Price Latimer Agah, Jan Belson, Laura Donnelley, Charles Gaines, Kim McCarty, Bruce Samuels, Rosa Sinnott, Randi Malkin Steinberger and Philip Yenawine.

-- Ellen Olivier