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Inside Public Art Fund’s 2026 Spring Benefit, New York’s Most Civic-Minded Soirée

At the Metropolitan Pavilion, Genesis Belanger, Juan Veloz and Kambui Olujimi helped produce the organization's most dynamic fundraiser to date.

In a busy and buttoned-up spring gala calendar, Public Art Fund’s annual benefit has always offered the art world a chance to cut loose. Earlier this month, the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year returned to the Metropolitan Pavilion with its trademark dynamism supplied this year by three artists whose work is deeply woven into Public Art Fund’s 2026 program. Genesis Belanger, drawing from her forthcoming City Hall Park exhibition, designed the evening’s vibe, extending her signature visual and conceptual language into every corner of the space. Photographer Juan Veloz, whose work anchored Public Art Fund’s first exhibition of the year, “On the Flip Side,” presented an immersive portrait experience that invited guests inside a nostalgic scene inspired by his grandmother’s living room, a warm yet radical symbol of comfort, protection and generational continuity. And Kambui Olujimi, one of 19........

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