Gala to honor Anna Wintour, Bethann Hardison, Rashid Johnson, and Ambassador Andrew Young.
The Gordon Parks Foundation will host its Annual Awards Dinner & Auction of Gordon Parks' photographs on Tuesday, May 20 at Cipriani 42nd Street.
The Foundation celebrates the enduring legacy of Gordon Parks, a visionary photographer and multidisciplinary artist, by supporting and launching artistic and educational projects that amplify his deep commitment to social justice and the transformative power of creativity.
The gala, which brings together changemakers across film, music, fashion, art, and philanthropy, will honor legendary model and activist Bethann Hardison, acclaimed contemporary artist Rashid Johnson, Anna Wintour, Chief Content Officer, Condé Nast, and Global Editorial Director, Vogue and politician, minister and civil rights leader Ambassador Andrew Young, who was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mayor of Atlanta and a U.S. Congressman.
“In a moment of divide, Gordon Parks unifies us all,” said Executive Director of The Gordon Parks Foundation, Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. “His commitment to the arts and social justice transcends generations. Our 2025 honorees are pillars in their fields and advance Gordon's 'common search for a better life and a better world.' The Gordon Parks Foundation Gala is our homecoming - a night to celebrate art, activism, and support for the next generations of artists.”
The evening's special guests include the son and grandson of Rev. E.F. Ledbetter, who Gordon Parks photographed extensively in Chicago in 1953 for a story on the Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. These photographs will be the subject of an exhibition at Howard University in early 2025.
The co-chairs for the 2025 Gordon Parks Foundation Awards Dinner & Auction are: Alicia Keys and Kasseem Dean, Tonya and Spike Lee, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, Sarah Arison, Kathryn and Ken Chenault, Michi Jigarjian, Judy and Leonard Lauder, Carol Sutton Lewis and William M. Lewis, Jr., Crystal McCrary and Raymond McGuire, Clara Wu Tsai and Gail and Jeff Yabuki.
All proceeds from the evening will support year-round educational programming as well as the fellowships, prizes, and scholarships provided by The Gordon Parks Foundation to the next generation of artists, writers, and students whose work follows in Parks' footsteps. Tickets are available starting at $2,000 and can be purchased on the Gordon Parks Foundation website or by contacting Buckley Hall Events at gpfgala@buckleyhallevents.com or 914-579-1000.
The Gordon Parks Foundation supports and produces artistic and educational initiatives that advance the legacy and vision of Gordon Parks—recognized as the most significant American photographer of the 20th century, as well as a writer, musician, and filmmaker, who used the arts to further “the common search for a better life and a better world.” Through exhibitions, publications, and public programs organized in collaboration with national and international institutions at its exhibition space in Pleasantville, New York, the Foundation provides access to, and supports understanding of, the work and contributions of Gordon Parks for artists, scholars, students, and the public. Through its year-round educational programming and annual grant-making initiatives, the Foundation champions current and future generations of artists and humanitarians whose work carries on Parks' legacy. For more information, please visit https://www.gordonparksfoundation.org.
In a career that spanned more than 50 years, photographer, filmmaker, musician, and author Gordon Parks created a groundbreaking body of work that made him one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1940s, he documented American life and culture with a focus on social justice, race relations, the civil rights movement, and the Black American experience. Born into poverty and segregation in Fort Scott, Kansas, Parks was drawn to photography as a young man. Despite his lack of professional training, he won a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1942; this led to a position with the photography section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Washington, D.C., and later, the Office of War Information (OWI). By the mid-1940s, he was working as a freelance photographer for publications such as Vogue, Glamour and Ebony. Parks was hired in 1948 as a staff photographer for Life Magazine, where he spent more than two decades creating some of his most notable work. In 1969, he became the first Black American to write and direct a major feature film, The Learning Tree, based on his semi-autobiographical novel. His next directorial endeavor, Shaft (1971), helped define a genre known as Blaxploitation films. Parks continued photographing, publishing, and composing until his death in 2006.
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