Heading into it's 10th, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Art +Film Gala features two honorees from their respective industries to celebrate and bring their communities together. This year, the event leans into its big anniversary by honoring three guests: Amy Sherald, Kehind Wiley and Steven Spielberg. On Nov. 6, the Gucci-sponsored event will see the biggest names from entertainment and culture come together for one special evening, with big thanks to co-chairs Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio. Ahead of the gala, LACMA director Michael Govan sat down to open up all about this year's event.
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How does it feel to be headed back into an in-person event after not being able to gather in-person next year?
We were just saying we can't believe it's actually happening... A gala like this takes a very long time to organize and produce, so during the pandemic, I made a slightly risky decision to go forward hopeful that we would be in a place where we could hold the gala, which we are.
There have been more than a few major museum events now held under these conditions, whether it be the Met Gala or the Academy opening or the Studio Museum Gala, so I think that our world has learned to cope with all the complexities and requirements. I think people still want to gather very much. Not everyone, but we've had a lot of demands that we know that there are a lot of people who do want to gather to celebrate art and film.
Can you tell me about the decision to honor Amy Sherald, Kehinde Wiley and Steven Spielberg?
Most of the artists that we've honored have been artists whose major portion of their career has been Los Angeles. That seems fitting, we’re the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. We sit at the center of one of the most creative cities in the world, and that makes sense. But when we had to nail down that we would be the West Coast venue for the Obama portraits, we internally discussed that, one, Kehinde is from L.A. It's [also] the 10th anniversary of the gala; honoring two artists like that just seems so perfect. It seemed like a really nice idea since on the schedule they were landing in the same place, so we kind of broke the formula and we're honoring two artists.
And then with Steven Spielberg... he's obviously one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. And actually he and his wife know Amy Sherald very well. They've been supporters of hers before for this tour and the fame around the portrait, so I knew that he was very knowledgeable and supportive of these artists in particular. It seemed like a nice moment to connect our long-held desire to honor Steven... He's such an icon for the community and the world.
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In the gala’s 10th anniversary film, A Few Things About Art + Film, you noted how the inception of the gala , or at least part of it, came from the realization that the art and film worlds didn’t really mingle. Why is it important that these culture sectors come together?
I think that everybody knows this about Los Angeles: that it's an incredible collection of talent, artistic talent of all kinds. But it is a little siloed, it's not as densely urban, for example, as big as the creative communities in some other cities, which are less spread out. So it's not as if we lack many, many artists, filmmakers, designers, but it's funny, we don't have a natural gathering place and I guess I didn't realize that. I think it's this nature of the spread-out Los Angeles. From my perspective, one of the attractions about L.A., from the art perspective, is that it has probably one of the greatest concentrations of diverse groups of artists in the world right now.
And while the gala was art and film... we engage Gucci, we engage music, and if you go to the events, you see creative people of all media. You’ve got fashion, music, architects are there, designers. So “art and film” is sort of the lead for gathering the whole creative piece.
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Looking back at the last ten years, what are you most proud of about the Art + Film Gala?
I think the gala puts film in everybody's mind as art, which it is. Again, it's just about recognizing it. But hopefully, it's also made artists feel more like celebrities, and I mean that in the best way, that they are recognized in a very, very public way, on the same level. So the idea that the cameras are snapping pictures of the film directors, movie stars, musicians, artists... part of it was to highlight who is an artist. I think they sometimes don't get as much recognition on that level, and so that was the idea behind our film series. I would say the other accomplishment of the gala (and this is very much through one of our staff members here, Erin Wright, and what we call here LACMA productions) was to make a film about every artist. And those films have played at film festivals, as well as at the gala and then become educational material...I think those films are an accomplishment in themselves.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Photography by: BFA
