Cultural Cachet and Institutional Clout Converge at Dia Beacon’s Spring Benefit
Dia Art Foundation must hire an absolute army of photographers to document its Spring Benefit, which this year brought more than 550 artists, patrons, museum directors, curators and luminaries from architecture, film and fashion to Beacon, New York. Yes, it’s a fundraiser, but no, it doesn’t feel like one—whether thanks to the cavernous and beautiful interiors of Dia Beacon or the convivial company.
This year’s guests included the always-fabulous Julianne Moore, Gen Z Pinault heir François Louis Pinault, arts patron and Qatari royal Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani, music producer Jack Antonoff, actor and playwright Jeremy O. Harris, designer Louise Trotter and mega-collectors Allison and Larry Berg and JK Brown and Eric Diefenbach, along with sundry star architects, serious writers, generous philanthropists and otherwise Very Important People.
Among the art world notables spotted were numerous gallerists, curators and museum leaders, including David Nolan, Ales Ortuzar, Cecilia Alemani, Anne Pasternak, Tina Kim, Glenn Lowry, Nicola Lees and Antwaun Sargent. Naturally, the list of artists in attendance was equally long and illustrious—Sarah Sze, Lee Ufan, Chase Hall, Louise Lawler, Tyler Mitchell, Marilyn Minter, Virginia Overton, Terry Winters and many, many more.
The elegant mid-day multi-meal event began, as always, with a morning reception in the Gerhard Richter gallery, after which guests were welcome to browse current exhibitions of works by Renée Green, Roni Horn, Cameron Rowland, Lucas Samaras and Keith Sonnier until the seasonally inspired tulip-bedecked luncheon in the airy Felix Gonzalez-Torres galleries.
In between, board chair Nathalie de Gunzburg took to the dais to address the assembled crowd before handing the mic over to director Jessica Morgan, who paid tribute to the abovementioned artists and reflected on her decade at Dia.