As the sun set over Little Tokyo on Saturday, 600 patrons of and participants in the Los Angeles art community filtered through the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA for the museum’s annual gala, held in partnership with Bvlgari. A hospitable night such as this one—in which an individual dressed to the nines gets to maneuver through the museum’s astonishing exhibition Olafur Eliasson: OPEN; allows themself to indulge in a coursed dinner with accompanying beverages; listens raptly as paragons of modern culture take the stage to honor epochal artists—lends itself to a general good feeling. On Saturday, however, guests attended the MOCA Gala to do more than luxuriate in the unfurling of an early summer evening in the company of other art-lovers: attendees were drawn together to recognize (and demonstrate tangible support for) art as a viable, significant vehicle through which we manifest a collective future. 

This year, the gala raised 3.1 million dollars for the museum, whose free admission policy endeavors to make art accessible, and enjoyable, for all of the visiting public. It is this pursuit—that of ongoing cultural accessibility—that remained at the forefront of the event, as the gala inaugurated new programming to honor three artists who have made a significant impact on the legacy of the museum (and, incidentally, the legacy of art in the public eye). This year’s honorees and first class of MOCA Legends: artist Theaster Gates, philanthropist Wendy Schmidt, and architect Frank Gehry—each introduced by Ava DuVernay, Jane Fonda, and Nancy Pelosi, respectively. 

After being led to the dining room by Japanese drum ensemble TAIKOPROJECT, gallery owners and philanthropists mingled with the likes of actors, sculpturists, and painters under the auspices of the tangerine lights in the cavernous dining room. Through speeches made by honorees and their champions, or even through GRAMMY-nominated artist Tierra Whack’s post-dinner performance, guests were made to consider the importance of art in a time where everything meaningful feels like it’s slipped almost irrevocably from our grasp. “As we celebrate our annual gala, we are not just honoring individual achievements,” MOCA Maurice Marciano director Johanna Burton posited in her opening remarks, “but reaffirming our collective belief in the power of art to connect and challenge; uplift and endure.”

And it was so—after raising millions in the name of the artistic community; after honoring three of the people who shaped the institution of MOCA as it stands today; it was difficult to not believe in that unbridled power. Where people love art—where art is empowered and encouraged and accessible—community thrives. Where community thrives, imagination flourishes. And, as honoree Wendy Schmidt so eloquently stated, “The freedom to imagine and create is part of human nature.”