The Met Gala Will Not Take Place on the First Monday in May, Becoming the Latest Marquee Art Event to Be Postponed

It may have been inevitable, but it still feels like a true sign
of the times: the Metropolitan Museum of Art has officially
postponed the 2020 Met Gala indefinitely. The event, which takes
place on the first Monday every May, is the largest annual
fundraiser for the museum’s Costume Institute. This year, the event
was to coincide with the exhibition “About Time: Fashion and
Duration,” an exploration of how clothes conflate past, present,
and future.

The news of the postponement comes after the Met’s decision to close its
doors to the public last week until at least April 4. Although
it was the first major museum to announce plans to shutter,
dozens followed in short
order.

At the time, the museum still remained coy about whether or not
the gala—its most star-studded event of the year—would go on. But
after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised
limiting gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight
weeks, the event’s fate was sealed. “In deference to this guidance,
all programs and events through May 15 will be canceled or
postponed,” a Met spokesperson said.

The Met Gala is now one of many fundraising initiatives that
have been called off on the advice of public health officials.
Spring is gala season for many nonprofits, and such events serve to
fund a large portion of their operations. Last year, each ticket to
the Met Gala (available by invite only) cost $35,000. Ticket
sales are said to fund the Costume Institute’s budget for a year.
The event is also an important one for fashion brands, which use
the red carpet as an unparalleled advertising opportunity.

In a version of her May editor’s letter published online today,
Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who has
chaired the museum’s Costume Institute since the 1990s, wrote: “Due
to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan
Museum to close its doors, About Time, and the
opening night gala, will not take place on the date scheduled.” She
also used the opportunity to sharply criticize President Donald
Trump’s response to the outbreak and endorse Joe Biden for
president, leading to this unforgettably 2020 slug on the story’s
URL: https://www.vogue.com/article/anna-wintour-joe-biden-covid-19-the-met-gala.

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Monday in May, Becoming the Latest Marquee Art Event to Be
Postponed appeared first on artnet News.