PHOTOS: Inside the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 2026 BAM Ball

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PHOTOS: Inside the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 2026 BAM Ball

Talib Kweli at the BAM Ball party. BAM Getty Images

The Brooklyn Academy of Music has never been ordinary, and neither is its much-anticipated spring benefit gallery, the annual BAM Ball. Earlier this week, a culture-conscious crowd gathered at the cavernous Adam E. Max Gathering Space for a monochromatically dressed night that went from cocktails and step-and-repeats to sit-down dinners and talks and finally, the acclaimed New York premiere of Robert Wilson. Moby Dick-a production that transforms Herman Melville's saga of infatuation and revenge with the tart dialogue and soaring ballads of British singer-songwriter Anna Calvi.

The night brought more than its fair share of memorable photo highlights, including a tribute Gabriel Pizziwho was honored for his leadership of BAM's Endowment Trust and received a standing ovation. The most touching moment of the evening, however, came when the choreographer Lucinda Children welcome on behalf of the late art critic Robert Wilson, recalling in his words how Wilson would write thank-you notes to artists and participants after attending opening nights. The dinner hour ended with the Watermill board chair William Campbell leading the gala in the band's song: “We miss you, Bob. We love you, Bob!”

2026 BAM Ball Honoring Robert Wilson and Gabriel Pizzi — William Campbell on stage. BAM Getty Images

The guest list was a perfect immersion into the BAM universe—intellectually serious, artistically omnivorous and incapable of dull conversation. A political strategist Huma Abedinfounder of Warehouse of St Susan Feldmanbuilder Charles Renfro and producer and philanthropist Fabiola Beracasa Beckman shared a room with a Grammy-nominated composer and songwriter Clyde Lawrencepoet and cultural commentator Hanif Abdurraqib and an interdisciplinary artist Helga Davis. An opera director came to the theater world Julie Taymorlyricists Lucinda Childs and Annie B Parsondirector Annie Dorsenactor and director Paul Lazar and Tony-nominated director, actor and singer Whitney White. The content of the screen was equally well distributed: Separation actor John Turturro, Game of Thrones student Robert Aramayo and a comedian and actor Jaboukie Young-White they held their own in a space where the competition for the most interesting people in attendance was intense. A fashion entrepreneur Cynthia Rowley we gathered this well-heeled crowd.

At that time DJ Miss Hap started the party (where the miracle came from Talib Kweli sent the crowd into a frenzy), the evening had raised more than $1.25 million in support of BAM's work. Not a bad night's work.