Hosted by the Artists Council, the Whitney Studio Party was the icing on last night's 2010 Whitney Gala. Presented by AOL, Akris and Saks Fifth Avenue, the downstairs fête (following a dinner upstairs) conjoined uptown and downtown in a well-mapped indoor/outdoor space. As the designer of the evening, Bronson Van Wyck, noted, it wasn't effortless: "I haven't eaten. I've been eating hors d'oeuvres! I think that if you're in my business, and you can be working in post-recession New York, you work!"
 
In a sea of floor-length dresses and black-and-white-clad gentlemen mingled artists, collectors, media types, and models: Jeff Koons to Jessica Stam, Charlotte Ronson to a congenial Chuck Close ("I'm here because of AOL... because they're contributing money to young artists"). A sidestep away by the bar stood artist Aurel Schmidt. "Dinner was quite good. I actually got the mushroom, which was disappointing. But the dessert had three options, which were quite appetizing. And... I got a little drunk," she summed, deadpanning. PHOTO OF CLAIRE DANES, LEFT, COURTESY OF BILLY FARRELL AGENCY.