COURTESY LACMA
In just a few years, the annual Art+Film Gala at LACMA has become something way more than your usual ho-hum museum fundraiser—it’s a celebrity-packed, Gucci-sponsored Instagram spectacle that modern Los Angeles deserves, the Met Ball of the West.
And, accordingly, each year more money flows in—last year saw another $3.6 million raised at the event, all going toward exhibitions, acquisitions, and educational programming.
And it should be noted that the museum’s in the midst of trying to reach a $650 million fundraising goal to support the wildly ambitious reconstruction plan orchestrated by architect Peter Zumthor. Director Michael Govan has said that he’s trying to get to $450 million by the end of the year.
And so, the museum will once again lure artists and movie stars to come by November 4 for its ritzy gala so they can take selfies wearing Gucci ballgowns in front of Chris Burden’s Urban Light (2008). The 2017 edition will honor Mark Bradford and George Lucas, the director who has pledged $1 billion to build the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.
“LACMA has enjoyed a long relationship with Mark, from our first purchase of his work in 2002 as part of the museum’s ‘Art Here and Now’ program to the acquisition of his monumental 2013 painting Shoot the Coin,” Govan said of the Los Angeles-based artist.
And speaking of Bradford’s fellow honoree, Govan said, “George’s epic new museum is one of the greatest cultural philanthropic gifts ever made in Los Angeles, and will benefit local communities as well as encourage a deeper understanding of narrative arts.”
Like it is every year, the gala will co-chaired by the philanthropist and social butterfly Eva Chow and the actor and collector Leonardo DiCaprio. And if you want to go, you’ll be pleased to hear that, in terms of ticket prices, this benefit is very much not like the $30,000-a-head Met Ball: They start at “just” $5,000.