PHOTOS: Inside the 2026 YoungArts Gala

Marisa Tomei and Sarah Arison. Yvonne Tnt/BFA.com

There are few more reliable signs that spring has arrived in New York than the annual return of the YoungArts Gala to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur, where members of the cultural, creative and philanthropic elite gather to celebrate the next generation of American artists at a fête designed, once again, by Raúl Àvila—the maestro behind the Met Gala and sundry major awards shows. Gala chairs Sarah Arison and Thomas Wilhelm, Gillian Hearst, Michi and Charles Jigarjian, and Sandra and Tony Tamer welcomed nearly 300 attendees this year to what began, as per usual, with an elegant cocktail reception that morphed into a celebration of emerging talent in the worlds of dance, music and song, ultimately raising over $1 million in support of YoungArts’ mission.

This year’s honorary co-chairs, groundbreaking prima ballerina Misty Copeland and artist Glenn Ligon, lent the event a palpable creative wattage, while award-winning Broadway performer (and YoungArts alumnus) Blaine Alden Krauss kept the evening running with practiced grace. The performances were directed by choreographer Caleb Teicher, himself a 2011 YoungArts Winner in Dance. But the evening’s emotional center was the presentation of the Arison Award to Academy Award–winning actress Marisa Tomei, honored for her dynamic career spanning stage and screen and for her sustained mentorship of YoungArts talent.

Christian Burse performing. Yvonne Tnt/BFA.com

The guest list, as always, read like a cross-section of everything that makes New York’s cultural ecosystem worth celebrating. From the dance world, there was the legend himself, Mikhail Baryshnikov, with dancer and writer Lisa Rinehart, American Ballet Theatre artistic director Susan Jaffe, dancer and producer daniil simkin, Desmond Richardson of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, MacArthur Fellow Ralph Lemon, Tony Award–winning choreographer Bill T. Jones and Princess Grace Award–winner choreographer Roderick George. Oscar-nominated actress Rosie Perez brought her own particular brand of Brooklyn glamour, while luminaries from the music sphere included Grammy Award–winning violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist and composer Conrad Tao, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and Tony nominees Daniel Watts and Michael McElroy.

The art world was equally well-represented, with Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak, MoMA PS1 director Connie Butler, High Line Art director and Venice Biennale curator Cecilia Alemani, Keith Haring Foundation executive director Simon Castets, TRIBE artistic director Shamel Pitts and Aspen Art Museum’s Nicola Lees in attendance. Also spotted were art collectors Jamie and Robert Soros and celebrity patron Komal Shah, and of course, there were many, many artists in the room, including Jean Shin, Camille Henrot, Jonah Freeman, KAWS, Sheree Hovsepian, Zoë Buckman, Taryn Simon, Deborah Willis, Nikolai and Simon Haas, Eddie Martinez, Sam Moyer, Lee Quiñones, Zoë Buckman and Eric Haze.