Inside the Bronx Museum’s 2024 Gala

A swarm of attendees in their spring-benefit bests congregated at the Ziegfeld Ballroom this week for the Bronx Museum’s annual gala.

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The night’s honoree was the artist Sanford Biggers, who opened a critically lauded solo show at the institution, “Codeswitch” in the fall of 2020. At the gala, the artist told Family Style he felt a familiar “sense of family and friendship” throughout the room. “I’ve always felt that with the museum, and it’s great to see that here tonight,” he continued. “Everyone feels like they know each other, and we believe in the same mission and cause of the museum.”

What of the chic, original fashion sensibilities of the crowd? “A lot of the designers are artists at heart, and we’ve chosen different ways [to express that]. Now we’re at a place where there’s a convergence, where we speak so much of the same language,” Biggers explained. Paired with a faux-pearl necklace thrifted at a Paris consignment shop, his sleek black suit jacket and matching slacks were the work of emerging brand Art Comes First, spearheaded by Savile Row tailors Sam Lambert and Shaka Maidoh, “dear friends” of the artist. “I met them and loved their aesthetic, then I talked to them and I was like Oh my God, we could have grown up together,” Los Angeles-born, New York-based Biggers said.

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Another highlight of the event was the presentation of the Visionary Award to the two-time Grammy winning jazz vocalist Samara Joy, 24, who treated an enraptured audience to her electrifying vocal stylings at the end of her acceptance speech. 

Other notable guests included esteemed Studio Museum curator Thelma Golden, fashion designer and Bronx Museum board member Jérôme LaMaar, and artists including Julie Mehretu, Derrick Adams, Hank Willis Thomas, Baseera Khan, Angel Otero, Dread Scott, and more.