Los Angeles County Museum of Art 50th Anniversary

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, on Saturday night the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held a fund-raising gala and a viewing of 50 for 50: Gifts on the Occasion of LACMA’s Anniversary. Guests such as Will Ferrell, LACMA trustee Viveca Paulin-Ferrell, Barbra Streisand, and Jim Carrey arrived dressed in black tie and were welcomed to the museum by drummers flanking Chris Burden’s Urban Light sculpture.As the event took place in Los Angeles, where the weather is rarely anything but pleasant, cocktails were served both inside the galleries and outside on the patio. LACMA director Michael Govan and his wife, Katherine Ross, in a Rodarte Star Wars gown, greeted actors Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer, Elizabeth Chambers, and Anjelica Huston, who sipped celebratory champagne alongside art world aficionados Ed Ruscha, Frank Gehry, Alex Israel, Bettina Korek, and Barbara Kruger.

After sufficient mingling, the new exhibition was unveiled and Los Angeles County Museum of Art trustees Willow Bay, Lynda Resnick, and Dasha Zhukova; Liberty Ross; and Vogue’s Lisa Love (also wearing Rodarte) perused the freshly hung gallery that displayed 50 of the newly gifted works of art.

As aerial performers on malleable stilts swayed back and forth above, guests including Jane Ross, Cassandra and Brad Grey, Bryan Lourd, and Bruce Bozzi sat down to dinner. Seal surprised the crowd by singing hits like “Kiss from a Rose” and “Love’s Divine” onstage, and then, John Burroughs High School’s Powerhouse choir sang a rendition of “Happy Birthday,” a fitting ending to the semi-centennial celebration.