BROOKLYN, NY.- The Brooklyn Museum will honor James S. Polshek, Founder and Senior Design Counsel, Polshek Partnership Architects, at its annual gala, the Brooklyn Ball, Thursday evening, April 23, 2009, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Mr. Polshek will accept the Museum's highest honor, the Augustus Graham Medal, for his commitment of nearly twenty years to the Brooklyn Museum. Co-Chaired by Susan T. Rodriguez, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin, and Susan Weber, the gala will feature an opportunity to view the exhibition Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea.

Tickets to the Ball range from $500 to $1,000, and tables are available from $5,000 to $50,000. Further information and options for ticket purchases are available by e-mail at special.events@brooklynmuseum.org or by phoning (718) 501-6423. Proceeds from the event will go to support the Museum's public and education programs.

This year's black, white, and silver-attire event begins at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails in the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion on the first floor, which was designed by Polshek Partnership Architects and opened to the public in 2004. Following dinner, guests will have the opportunity to view the exhibition Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings from Paris to the Sea, the first major showing of the work of the French Impressionist to be presented in New York in more than thirty years. Curators will be on hand to answer questions. Dinner and dancing will follow at 8 p.m. in the recently renovated Beaux-Arts Court on the third floor.

The Augustus Graham Medal is being presented to James S. Polshek in recognition of his role in the visionary transformation of the Brooklyn Museum. The reinvention in 2004 of the main entrance, public plaza, and lobby of the original Beaux-Arts building designed in 1893 by McKim, Mead & White has prepared the Museum for the future, reestablishing its commitment to openness and accessibility in its services to visitors and the community at large.

James S. Polshek has spent the last five decades creating significant public architecture for New York City. These works include the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History; the New York Times Printing Plant; and the Ed Sullivan Theater adaptation for David Letterman's "Late Show." For more than twenty years, Mr. Polshek and his partners have completed award-winning designs for numerous spaces within the Brooklyn Museum, including the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion and Lobby, the Beaux-Arts Court, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, and the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro West Wing Galleries.

The Augustus Graham Medal is named after one of the founders of the Brooklyn Apprentices Library in 1823. That institution, which Graham nurtured and expanded, grew into the Brooklyn Institute and later became the Brooklyn Museum.