The Four Arts Goes Revolutionary

“Give me liberty, or give me death!” declared Patrick Henry famously in 1775, urging the American colonies toward revolution. Two hundred and fifty years later, that same spirit of independence was revisited in Palm Beach, where The Society of the Four Arts transformed its biennial dinner dance into a journey back in time to the birth of the United States.

Held on February 20 and chaired by Jeannie Rutherfoord with co-chair Cindy Galvin, the evening, titled Founding Feats ★ Freedom Beats ★ America 250, invited the 480 guests in attendance to step briefly into the world of 1776. Conceived as a warm tribute to the country’s founding era, the night began with cocktails enjoyed among bronzed living statues of America’s founders. Attendees could then sip said drink inside a replica of George Washington’s wartime tent, recreated with actors and historians from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, before being ushered toward the dining tent to the sound of a fife and drum corps, echoing what once accompanied Revolutionary troops.

Dinner itself offered a culinary journey into the kitchens of early America. The menu, which included Martha Washington’s meat pie, rosemary shrimp, tomato pudding, and Abigail Adams’ Apple Pan Dowdy, was an ode to 18th century history carried through recipes. In fact, Martha Washington, often described as the “mother of the nation,” kept a remarkable handwritten cookbook, Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery, which was passed down through her family and has become an extraordinary record of early American domestic life. Unsurprisingly, women played a greater role in shaping the young nation than official histories once suggested. Abigail Adams, whose apple dessert closed the evening’s meal, was one of the most formidable political voices of the Revolutionary era and famously urged her husband John Adams to “remember the ladies” when forming the laws of the new nation in 1776. One could imagine more than a few guests at the Four Arts channeling their inner Abigail Adams as they moved through the evening’s festivities.

The immersive design was led by the celebrated event firm Van Wyck & Van Wyck, which transformed the Four Arts campus into a theatrical vision of Revolutionary America. The evening ultimately served as a tribute not only to our nation’s past but also to the cultural life of Palm Beach. Since its founding in 1936, The Society of the Four Arts has been a cornerstone of intellectual and artistic life in the community, offering lectures, exhibitions, performances, and educational programs that continue to inspire and educate. 

As guests drifted home after midnight, the words of Benjamin Franklin seemed to echo across the centuries. When asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had created, he famously replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Two and a half centuries later, the conversation continues.