ICA LA Spring Benefit Celebrates
Dynamic Community of Artists and Exciting New Chapter
and Welcomed New Board President Claudia Flores

We extend huge thanks to our patrons, friends, and artist community for making ICA LA’s Spring Benefit such a terrific success! The Benefit was held at the studio of Los Angeles painter Mary Weatherford on Saturday night and featured a special performance by the wonderful New York-based comedian, writer, and musician Morgan Bassichis and beats by DJ Huneycut. Venice-based restaurant Gjelina-highly regarded for their focus on locally-sourced, produce-forward foods-served delicious appetizers, fresh pizza, and a selection of desserts from their brick oven truck, alongside signature cocktails. Guests, including ICA LA Board members Yuval Bar-Zemer, Vera Campbell, Laura Donnelley, Andrea Fraser, Claudia Flores, Maria Greenshields-Ziman, Joel Lubin, Randi Malkin Steinberger, and Kathleen Rosenbloom enjoyed exclusive access to Weatherford’s studio, collaboratively designed by interior designer Oliver M. Furth and Kulapat Yantrasast of WHY Architects, the same visionary architect behind ICA LA’s DTLA building.

The fundraiser, which raised $300,000, celebrated ICA LA’s dynamic community of artists and devoted patrons and toasted our future by welcoming new Board President Claudia Flores. As the only museum in the downtown Los Angeles Arts District, ICA LA is an epicenter of artistic experimentation and incubator for new ideas. Our mission is to support art that sparks the pleasure of discovery and challenges the way we see and experience the world, ourselves, and each other. We are committed to offering all our exhibitions and programming to the public free of charge. The generosity of our community of supporters through our annual Spring Benefit directly supports our exhibitions and Learning & Engagement programs and is essential to allowing us to continue to serve diverse communities across Los Angeles and beyond.

In addition to host Mary Weatherford, notable artists including Kathryn Andrews, Carmen Argote,  Andrea Bowers, Liz Glynn, Jade Gordon, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork (who currently has an exhibition at ICA LA), Tala Madani, Na Mira, Christina Quarles, Anna Sew Hoy, Henry Taylor, Kerry Tribe, Rebecca Morris, Alexandro Segade, Mungo Thompson danced and celebrated alongside patrons, gallerists, curators, museum directors, and collectors including Jose Luis Blondet, Johanna Burton, Brian Butler, Erin Christovale, Tim Disney, James Fuentes, Rita Gonzalez, Karen Hillenburg, Brooke Kanter, Mia Locks, Elsa Longhauser, Mara McCarthy, Sarah McHale, Jeff and Marla Michaels, Jarl Mohn, Jenelle Porter, and Mitie Tucker.

This Benefit celebrates an exciting moment with ICA LA having recently completed a phase of strategic visioning and planning that resulted in an ambitious roadmap for the museum’s future, including many exciting priorities that will further amplify its mission. Building upon the museum’s distinguished history of daring curatorial and educational programming, ICA LA continues to look to artists’ empathy, creativity, and ability to challenge the status quo. The museum is actively building its future as a welcoming and dynamic space where people gather and feel encouraged and safe to explore the world and themselves and learn through the lens of the artworks and public programs we offer. ICA LA believes artists, who are supported to do their best work, and diverse publics, who experience radical openness and inquisitive criticality, have the power to transform Los Angeles and the world.

About the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA)

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) is an epicenter of artistic experimentation and incubator of new ideas. Founded in 1988 as the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA) and reestablished in 2017 with a new identity and home in Downtown Los Angeles, ICA LA builds upon a distinguished history of bold curatorial vision and innovative programming to illuminate the important untold stories and emerging voices in contemporary art and culture. The museum’s 12,700 square-foot renovated industrial building—designed by wHY Architecture under the leadership of Kulapat Yantrasast—features ample space for exhibitions, public programs, retail pop-ups, integrated offices, and special projects.

ICA LA’s mission is to support art that sparks the pleasure of discovery and challenges the way we see and experience the world, ourselves, and each other. ICA LA is committed to upending hierarchies of race, class, gender, and culture. Through exhibitions, education programs, and community partnerships, ICA LA fosters critique of the familiar and empathy with the different. ICA LA is committed to making contemporary art relevant and accessible for all. Admission is free.