Gala at de Young Museum benefits Fine Arts Museums of SF

Multimedia artist Sir Isaac Julien and philanthropist Dagmar Dolby were fêted at de Young Museum

Words by CATHERINE BIGELOW

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's Annual Gala

Golden Gate–style glamour dazzled on Thursday, April 10, during the Annual Gala at the de Young Museum, where stalwart supporters raised a record $1.7 million — the largest ever tally — benefiting exhibition and community programs of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Led by gala cochairs Lynn and Edward Poole, this two-tiered soirée drew 400 cultural poobahs, artists, and collectors to an elegant black-tie dinner. Later, 1,100 next-gen FAMSF fans alighted Late Night for an after-party (coproduced by committee member Liz Curtis) pulsating with activations, craft cocktails, gallery tours, and a pre-Coachella, 13-song set by Ravyn Lenae.

The evening honored philanthropist and former FAMSF trustee Dagmar Dolby and Sir Isaac Julien, a trailblazing multimedia artist, photographer, and filmmaker.

On the museum’s tented patio, designer J. Riccardo Benavides set a swell scene of lush florals and crystal candelabras, with copper-colored accents that echoed the de Young’s stunning exterior copper-paneled sheath. Atop his tables, McCall’s Catering and Events served a delectable three-course dinner, accented by generous dollops of the Caviar Co.’s finest.

Among the VIP glam-squad: FAMSF chair emerita Dede Wilsey; new board president David Spencer and trustee Kathryn Lasater; Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis and her husband, Markos Kounalakis; SF First Lady Becca Prowda, Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, and his wife, Sarah Wendell Sherrill; Kaitlyn Krieger and her husband, Instagram cofounder Mike Krieger; art patrons Pamela Kramlich, Randi and Bob Fisher, Komal Shah and Gaurav Garg; artists Catherine Wagner and Woody de Othello; gallerists Jessica Silverman (who represents Julien in SF) and Cheryl Haines; a coterie of cultural leaders, including SFMOMA Director Christopher Bedford and SF Ballet Artistic Director Tamara Rojo; and Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., a direct descendant of Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist whose life inspires Julien’s work.

That work was celebrated with the launch of Isaac Julien: I Dream a World, a groundbreaking retrospective — the first in the U.S. — for the British-born artist, who was knighted for his work in 2022 by Queen Elizabeth II. Julien is also a Distinguished Professor of the Arts at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Choreographed by FAMSF curator Claudia Schmuckli, the ambitious exhibition features a 28-minute, 10-screen film installation and meditation on the life of Douglass, as well as other works and films that explore the artist’s life experience through a lens of race, class, gender, and sexuality. In 2023, Julien’s Lessons of the Hour was acquired by FAMSF for its permanent collection.

During cocktails in Wilsey Court, where overhead screens scroll Julien’s film Ten Thousand Waves (2010), FAM Director-CEO Thomas Campbell marveled that Julien’s show is the museum’s largest-ever mounted: video screens and salon viewing galleries required that some gallery walls be moved — and even built.

“I’ve seen a lot of exhibitions in my career. And I Dream a World is, without a doubt, one of the most extraordinary: extraordinary in its scale, in its power and in the empathy it engenders,” Campbell said. “At a time when empathy, compassion, and nuance are under attack in many respects, this exhibition feels even more urgent and poignant.”

Campbell also paid tribute to the profound legacy of Dagmar and her late husband, pioneering sound wizard Ray Dolby, for their decades of beneficence in the fields of arts, science, brain health, and reproductive rights. The couple helped rebuild the de Young, and Dagmar remains a passionate member of the museums’ acquisitions committee, often making sizable yet anonymous gifts. Now Dagmar has pledged a new, significant (and undisclosed) gift to ensure the future and vitality of the Fine Arts Museums.

“I’m a little self-conscious to be honored for something that I so enjoy and brings so much fun to my life. But it is a thrill to share this podium with a renowned artist like Sir Isaac,” said Dolby, who will be further fêted for her philanthropy this summer in England, when she is appointed an honorary dame commander by King Charles III.

Recalling growing up in her native Germany amid the aftermath of World War II, she found reprieve and refuge in art and art history. But today Dagmar is distressed by the negativism in our current national landscape.

“As both inspiration and comfort, I believe that we can turn to art and museums as sanctuaries of history and beauty. We must remember that not even the most established of our institutions are safe,” she said. “History is repeating itself, tragically. Which is why we, as art lovers and museum protectors, have a duty to defend what is important to us and to the culture at large.” Through July 13 at the de Young Museum, San Francisco. famsf.org.