The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University hosted its first Gala event in over twenty years in New York City. This historic event launched the museum’s most ambitious fundraising effort to date: a $2 million Exhibition Endowment Fund dedicated to securing the future of groundbreaking contemporary art exhibitions at the Rose, established by a lead gift from Lizbeth Krupp. This momentous occasion united artists, scholars, collectors, and supporters to celebrate the museum’s legacy and future. The evening raised over $900,000 to further strengthen the Exhibition Endowment Fund.
The 2025 Gala honored Lizbeth Krupp, longtime Chair of the Rose Art Museum’s Board of Advisors, and acclaimed artist Hugh Hayden. Krupp has been a steadfast leader, guiding the museum through over a decade of transformation and ensuring its role as a vital center for contemporary art. Hayden is one of the leading artists of his generation, with the Rose presenting his first major survey in New England, Hugh Hayden: Home Work (September 18, 2024 – June 1, 2025). Sara Friedlander, a Rose Board of Advisors member and Deputy Chairman of Christie’s, and Abigail Ross Goodman, Co-Founder of Goodman Taft, co-chaired the event. The Presenting Sponsor was The Milikowsky Family.
Notable guests included Director and Chief Curator of the Rose Art Museum Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster, Ian Alteveer, Leilah Babirye, Ali Banisadr, Nicholas Baume, Christopher Bedford, Zoë Buckman, Kim Conaty, Peggy Fogelman, Alex Gartenfeld, Jorie Graham, Lyle Ashton Harris, Hugh Hayden, Tishan Hsu, Alex Logsdail, Nate Lowman, Angel Otero, Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Salman Toor, and many more.
“As we honor our extraordinary honorees, we also plant seeds for the Rose’s future,” said Gannit Ankori, Director and Chief Curator of the Rose Art Museum.“The Exhibition Endowment is a visionary commitment—one that safeguards curatorial freedom and nurtures artistic daring for generations to come.It ensures that the legacy we shape today will continue to illuminate, provoke, and expand access to bold contemporary art and ideas far into the future.”
Since its founding in 1961, the Rose Art Museum has been a leader in contemporary art through groundbreaking exhibitions that challenge and inspire. Landmark shows such as Vision & Television (1970), the first U.S. museum exhibition on video art, and Pretty Raw: After and Around Helen Frankenthaler (2015) have shaped scholarly discourse in the field, while Rose Art Museum’s commissionof Mark Bradford: Tomorrow is Another Day (in partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Art) for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale amplified a critical voice on a global stage.
