By Cara Waters
The NGV’s biggest donors, Lindsay and Paula Fox, won’t be attending the gallery’s gala on Saturday night, and Premier Jacinta Allan will also be absent.
The guest list for the NGV’s lavish annual bash is a carefully calibrated exercise, and organisers will have to hope there are enough members of Melbourne’s cultural, political and business elite in attendance to give the gala sufficient pulling power.
Lindsay Fox and Paula Fox attend the 2023 NGV Gala.Credit: Getty Images for NGV
The NGV Gala, which this year launches the gallery’s exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s work, attracts 1400 guests, and tickets sell out in hours at $495 a pop.
Guests enjoy free-flowing Moet Chandon champagne, Four Pillars gin and finger food and get to have an early wander through the exhibition.
But the most sought-after invitation is to the exclusive dinner beforehand at the gallery, which is for 400 guests.
Some members of Melbourne’s movers and shakers refuse to attend the gala unless they score the dinner invitation, dismissing the gala itself as merely an after-party.
Last year, the dinner was held in the NGV’s car park, an edgy but somewhat draughty location that did not go down well with Lindsay and Paula Fox, according to one attendee who requested confidentiality to discuss a private event. The Foxes have donated $100 million to the NGV’s contemporary art gallery, The Fox: NGV Contemporary.
A spokesman for the Fox family declined to comment but said the couple were flying to Hawaii and would be unable to attend.
Allan, who attended the NGV Gala for the first time last year, will also be a no-show, a potentially politically savvy move in a cost-of-living crisis.
A spokeswoman for Allan said there was no particular reason she would not attend, but the premier had a very busy calendar.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and husband, Yorick Piper, at the NGV Gala in 2023.Credit: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images for NGV
Invited guests this year include actors Toni Collette, Teresa Palmer, Joel Edgerton, Kat Stewart and Rachel Griffiths, Olympic swimmer Ariarne Titmus, musician Baker Boy, TV presenter Melissa Leong, comedian Em Rusciano and Collingwood footballer Darcy Moore.
The event is not intended to raise money, but instead builds the gallery’s profile and strengthens connections with its most important donors and backers.
Modelled on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Met Gala in New York and the Summer Party at London’s Serpentine Gallery, the NGV’s Gala showcases the gallery’s operations and that it is worthy of the city’s elite.
The NGV declined to answer questions from The Age, but director Tony Ellwood previously told the Australian Financial Review: “This is not a fundraising event. This is a break-even event. Its agenda is about thanking and profile building.”
Many attendees spend months planning their outfits, including Melbourne Opera director Anastasia Kogan, the wife of Kogan.com rich lister Ruslan Kogan.
The Kogans are donors to the NGV, and Anastasia Kogan said she was sometimes hit up for tickets to the event.
“You see people missing out, and I think because of my passion for fashion and frequenting the event, I do have people asking me for some reason about the event and how to get in,” she said. “The NGV Gala is one of my favourite nights of the year as it combines the worlds of art and fashion.”
Anastasia Kogan has spent months planning her outfit for the NGV Gala.Credit: Eddie Jim.
Kogan will wear a rare vintage 1995 Jean Paul Gaultier cyber dot jumpsuit, paired with custom cape composed of thousands of pieces, which will be delivered in a trolley to the NGV and can only be assembled on the spot on Saturday.
“This year, my outfit and cape is a tribute to Kusama’s exploration of beauty and transformation. It’s a fleeting yet unforgettable statement,” she said.
Kogan will donate the Gaultier jumpsuit to NGV’s collection after the event, which she said would ensure “its legacy as a lasting symbol of art and fashion”.
Labor MP Luba Grigorovitch is attending with her husband, BGH private equity co-founder Ben Gray, and will wear a dress by Australian designer Vivienna Lorikeet. The designer has spent days hand-sewing flowers across the skirt.
“Vivienna is incredibly talented,” Grigorovitch said. “I am thrilled to be wearing this piece. I am proud that Melbourne holds the NGV Gala annually. We truly are the events capital, and our arts precinct is one that I am proud of.”
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