NEW YORK — Art consultant Anita Contini founded Creative Time in 1973 to bring art out of museums and galleries and into the public eye. On Friday night, it was all about dancing, roses, and stars at the non-profit arts organization’s Annual Spring Gala at Roseland Ballroom.

Fifties-style cigarette girls donning slinky bathing suits walked around showing off sculptor Rachel Feinstein’s platinum silicone special edition, “Pocket Rose,” which isn’t just a rose for Roseland Ballroom, but also an interpretation of a female sex organ that the artist conceived when she became interested in vaginas because of the labia-like folds in gothic German sculpture. “I started thinking of the idea of Japanese sex toys — pocket pussies they’re called — and I thought ‘Wow, what if I make the rose a sex toy?’” Feinstein told ARTINFO.

But does it actually work?

“It’s very shallow,” Feinstein pointed out. So she decided to create a brass orifice shaped like a hollowed-out phallus to go with it. “This is the idea of the yin and the yang, that’s the Brancusi,” she explained, pointing to the metal piece, “and this is the Eva Hesse,” she said of the rose.

The set came packaged in a religious reliquary box. “There’s always sex and religion,” she said.

After cocktails in the lobby, guests headed into the ballroom for dinner, which had been transformed into a disco dancing wonderland.

Cindy Sherman remembered her days as a struggling artist and talked to ARTINFO about why it’s so important to support non-profit arts organizations. “I totally relate to keeping in touch with my background and past, and all these arts organizations are totally in my past,” she said.

Stars shined in the form of projections on the ceilings and walls in reference to Tom Sachs’s upcoming Creative Time exhibition, “Space Program: Mars,” which opens at the Park Avenue Armory May 16, while renditions of Feinstein’s rose also lit up the wall.

After dinner, competition numbers were handed out and a rowdy dance contest ensued. Artist Dustin Yellin showed off his break dancing moves, while other guests, including Sachs, gallerist Marianne Boesky, fashion designer Donna Karan, and collector Beth De Woody (who was also a judge) floated throughout the revelry. “Free your body, free your mind,” flashed the giant screens as guests joyfully danced until 12:30 a.m. — when the program playfully instructed partygoers to “Go dance someplace else.”

Click on the slide show to see guests at Creative Time’s 2012 spring gala.