On Monday evening, the New Museum held its 2026 gala at Cipriani South Street, honoring outgoing Director Lisa Phillips, who led the institution for over three decades. The event featured a performance by Blondie's Debbie Harry, a live auction with works by Jack Pierson, Billy Sullivan, Rashid Johnson, and Cindy Sherman, and remarks from John Waters, Maya Lin, and Whitney Museum director Adam Weinberg. Notable attendees included artists Hank Willis Thomas, Derrick Adams, Marilyn Minter, and Anne Imhof, as well as arts leaders Thelma Golden, Yvonne Force Villareal, and Noah Horowitz.
The gala celebrated Phillips's transformative tenure, which included overseeing the museum's first building in 2007, co-founding the creative incubator New Inc in 2014, and organizing major exhibitions of Paul McCarthy and John Waters. The event also marked the museum's reopening after a lengthy renovation, underscoring its continued influence in the contemporary art world and its ability to draw a constellation of cultural figures and collectors.