Charli xcx, the British pop superstar whose album Brat has been on heavy rotation all summer long, will bring some of her club classics to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) on 2 November, when she headlines the museum’s annual Art+Film Gala.
This year’s edition of the institution’s biggest annual fundraiser will honour the Australian film-maker Baz Luhrmann and the artist Simone Leigh, who represented the United States at the 2022 Venice Biennale. A touring exhibition featuring works from Leigh’s Venice pavilion is currently on view at both Lacma and the California African American Museum (until 20 January 2025).
“Simone Leigh is one of the most captivating and important voices in contemporary art, brilliantly melding an array of different artistic traditions and centring Black femme subjects in powerful and moving ways,” Michael Govan, Lacma’s chief executive and director, said in a statement.
The gala is being co-chaired by the actor and collector Leonardo DiCaprio—who shot to fame after co-starring in Luhrmann's 1996 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet—and the fashion designer and philanthropist Eva Chow. “I can’t wait for our amazing musical guest Charli xcx to bring the house down,” Chow said in a statement. “It’s going to be a great evening!”
The Art+Film Gala supports a range of activities at Lacma, including the museum’s efforts to prioritise film in its curatorial programme. Last year’s edition of the gala, which featured a musical performance by Lenny Kravitz, raised more than $5m. The same year, Lacma achieved another major fundraising milestone, securing the $750m it was seeking for the capital campaign to complete its new Peter Zumthor-designed building, the David Geffen Galleries, which is more than two-thirds built and stretches across Wilshire Boulevard.
