Social Circuit

Pennsylvania Ballet opened its 46th season with a performance Friday of George Balanchine's Theme and Variations and Matthew Neenan's new work, At the border. Dinner and dancing with members of the ballet company followed at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue. The black-tie evening for 300, which raised $125,000, honored former board chair Kathy Anderson and her husband, Gary. Opening night also celebrated Pennsylvania Ballet artistic director Roy Kaiser's 30th anniversary with the company.

Artist Barkley L. Hendricks, a native of North Philadelphia, celebrated the opening of his first painting retrospective, "Birth of the Cool," at a preview party held Oct. 16 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Hendricks, 63, is an alumnus of the academy who now lives and teaches in New London, Conn. It was an emotional evening for Hendricks, who was welcomed home by 500 friends and family, including his mother, Ruby Hendricks of North Philadelphia, and Frederick Bacon, his eighth-grade art teacher from Elizabeth Gillespie Junior High School. The show of 57 paintings continues through Jan. 3.

More than 300 guests attended the Francisvale Home for Smaller Animals' 100th anniversary party Oct. 3 at the Crystal Tea Room. The evening honored Main Line Animal Rescue and Gov. Rendell for initiating legislation to crack down on puppy mills. Also honored was the late artist Betty Bowes, whose estate made a $200,000 gift to Francisvale, founded in 1909 in Radnor by Harriet Hare McClellan. The gala raised more than $110,000 for the no-kill animal shelter, which finds homes for about 200 animals each year.

The Rosenbach Museum & Library, the sole repository of original artwork by author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, held a benefit screening of Where the Wild Things Are, the live-action film adaptation of Sendak's children's classic of the same name, Oct. 14 at the Ritz East. Rosenbach, which boasts more than 10,000 Sendak sketches, drawings, manuscripts, books, and ephemera, features Sendak exhibits and special events throughout the year.

The Philadelphia of Museum of Art celebrated the opening of its latest show, "Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective," Oct. 15 with a gala preview for 400 guests. Among the partygoers were the artist's daughters, Natasha Gorky and Maro Gorky, Armenian Ambassador Tatoul Markarian, Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, and Lisa de Kooning, daughter of artist Willem de Kooning. The exhibition, the first retrospective of the artist's work in America since 1981, features nearly 180 paintings and drawings. The show continues through Jan. 10.