UPTOWN ELEGANCE
Harlem Entertainment & Events
Top: First Lady Rama Duwaji, Thelma Golden, and Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Bre Johnson/BFA.com, courtesy of the Studio Museum in Harlem.
By The Harlem Times Staff | October 27, 2026
On Monday night, the Studio Museum in Harlem threw the kind of party that reminds New York where its culture comes from. More than seven hundred artists, civic leaders, philanthropists and cultural luminaries filled The Glasshouse on 12th Avenue for the Museum’s annual Gala, a celebration of its first year in the new home on West 125th Street that opened to the public last November.
The evening raised $4 million for the Museum’s exhibitions, programs, scholarship and public outreach, according to the Studio Museum.
The night belonged, first, to Raymond J. McGuire. The longtime Chairman of the Board, now Chair Emeritus, was honored for years of leadership that carried the institution through the campaign to build its Adjaye-designed home. “Tonight we express our gratitude for Ray McGuire’s visionary leadership, which has been crucial to the Studio Museum in Harlem,” said Thelma Golden, the Museum’s Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator, crediting him with “championing artists of African descent, strengthening our connection to the Harlem community, and driving the ambitious campaign to build our new home on 125th Street.”
Board Chair Kathryn C. Chenault looked back on an “extraordinary inaugural year” and paused to remember the late Trustee Gordon J. Davis, who supported the Museum “through nearly every chapter of our journey.” In his spirit, she said, the Museum continues “in our mission of being the sanctuary for Black art and culture.”
In an annual tradition, Golden presented the Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize to Kevin Beasley. Established in 2006 by the jazz impresario George Wein in honor of his late wife, Joyce Alexander, a longtime Trustee, the prize is one of the most significant awards given to individual artists in the United States. Beasley, born in Lynchburg, Virginia, and based in New York, works across sculpture, drawing, installation, sound and performance. He joins a line of winners that includes Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon, Simone Leigh, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Toyin Ojih Odutola.
City Hall came uptown, too. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and First Lady Rama Duwaji joined Golden, Chenault, artist Rashid Johnson and actor Lake Bell for photographs, and the Mayor was seen greeting artist Julie Mehretu.
The room read like a who’s who of Black art and American culture. Filmmakers Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee arrived together. Painter Amy Sherald posed with Calida Rawles, Trustee Carol Sutton Lewis, National Black Theatre’s Sade Lythcott and Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Anna Glass. Photographer Carrie Mae Weems shared a moment with Golden and scholar Romi Crawford. Mickalene Thomas, Derrick Adams, Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon, Dawoud Bey, Sanford Biggers, Firelei Báez, Tyler Mitchell and Deborah Willis were among the guests, along with ABC’s Deborah Roberts, TV host Star Jones, documentarians Stanley Nelson and Dawn Porter, Darren Walker, Elizabeth Alexander and LACMA’s Michael Govan. The Hudson Horns kept the evening moving.
A year after the doors opened on 125th Street, Monday’s crowd made one thing plain: the Studio Museum’s new home has become what it set out to be, a gathering place for the people who make, champion and love Black art.
The Gala’s Lead Corporate Sponsors were Lafayette Square and HarbourView Equity.
The Evening in Pictures
In Attendance
Honorees and hosts: Raymond J. McGuire, Chair Emeritus; Kevin Beasley, Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize; Thelma Golden, Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator.
Civic leaders: Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani and First Lady of New York City Rama Duwaji.
Studio Museum Trustees: Kathryn C. Chenault (Chair), Carol Sutton Lewis, Dr. Amelia Ogunlesi, Damien R. Dwin, Jacqueline L. Bradley, Rodney M. Miller, Nicholas Antoine, Dr. Anita Blanchard, Danielle Cooper Williams, Sherrese Clarke, Sandra Grymes, Jamila Justine Willis, Natasha A. Holiday, Russ Hutchinson, C.C. Melvin Ike, Bernard I. Lumpkin, Victoria Rogers and Lise Wilks.
Artists: Derrick Adams, Lyle Ashton Harris, Firelei Báez, Dawoud Bey, Sanford Biggers, John Edmonds, Rashid Johnson, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Tyler Mitchell, Derriann Phar, Simonette Quamina, Calida Rawles, Amy Sherald, Taylor Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Mickalene Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems and Deborah Willis.
Film, media and entertainment: Spike Lee, Tonya Lewis Lee, Crystal McCrary, Stanley Nelson, Dawn Porter, Deborah Roberts, Star Jones, Lake Bell, and Darren Walker, President and CEO of Anonymous Content.
Museum and cultural leaders: Michael Govan (LACMA), Scott Rothkopf (Whitney Museum), Anne Pasternak (Brooklyn Museum), Ebony L. Haynes (David Zwirner), Antwaun Sargent (Gagosian), Akili Tommasino (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Franklin Sirmans (Pérez Art Museum Miami), Elizabeth Alexander (Mellon Foundation), Anna Glass (Dance Theatre of Harlem), Sade Lythcott (National Black Theatre), Naima Keith (LACMA), Rujeko Hockley (Whitney Museum), Sandra Jackson-Dumont (Getty), Nicola Vassell (Nicola Vassell Gallery), philanthropist Marva Smalls, and scholars Romi Crawford and Kellie Jones.
Also pictured: Golnaz Esmaili, Ayana Jackson, Amy Jackson, Latham Thomas, Marcia Smith, Hank Thomas Sr., James Hoff, Hannah Gottlieb-Graham, Julian Ehrlich, Arana Hankin, Rodney Shealey, Talitha Watkins, Jeanine Liburd, Lisa Bashi, Whitney-Gayle Benta, Ingrid Best and Lucinda Martinez.
Source: Studio Museum in Harlem press release, October 27, 2026. All photographs courtesy of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Photographers: Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Julie Skarratt, and Thelma Garcia for Julie Skarratt Photography, as credited. Building exterior: © Albert Vecerka/Esto.