On Saturday, March 9th, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive's third annual Art and Film Benefit will pay tribute to Lynn Hershman Leeson and Sky Hopinka, two creative visionaries who have made indelible impacts on these fields.

The event supports BAMPFA’s distinctive commitment to art, film, and student engagement.

“I’m thrilled that we'll be celebrating two pioneering figures whose work has meaningfully impacted audiences around the world, including here at BAMPFA,” said executive director Julie Rodrigues Widholm.

“Lynn's practice of exploring feminism and new technologies has been astonishingly prescient and highly influential for decades. Likewise, Sky has led a younger generation of moving image artists in imagining new forms of expression. As a museum that is uniquely dedicated to both art and film, it’s especially exciting for us to honor two individuals whose groundbreaking work straddles both gallery and cinematic settings.”

From left: Lynn Hershman Leeson and Sky Hopinka. (Courtesy of BAMPFA)

The 2024 benefit marks the third installment of BAMPFA’s new model for its annual fundraising gala. Last year’s event honored filmmaker and multimedia artist Cauleen Smith and the conceptual artist and photographer Catherine Wagner. That event raised $750,000 from a generous community of more than 250 friends and supporters, including: Alexandra Bowes and Stephen Williamson, J. K. Brown and Eric Diefenbach, Penny Cooper and Rena Rosenwasser, Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein, Maryellen Herringer, Michael Rubel and Kristin Rey, Komal Shah, Sharon and Julie Simpson, and Roselyne Chroman Swig; as well as a number of Bay Area artists, including Sadie Barnett, Judith Belzer, Adrian Burrell, Dewey Crumpler, Hal Fischer, Liz Hernandez and Ryan Whelan, Mildred Howard, Sahar Khoury, Kija Lucas, George McCalman, Masako Miki, Gay Outlaw, Ronald Rael, Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg, Miriam Klein Stahl and Lena Wolff, Tabitha Soren, Lava Thomas, and Leila Weefur, along with the 2021 Art and Film Benefit honorees Amalia Mesa-Bains and Trinh T. Minh-ha.

Proceeds from the Art and Film Benefit support the full scope of BAMPFA’s mission, with a particular focus on the museum’s student engagement programs. As the premier visual arts center at the nation’s top public research university, BAMPFA has a deep commitment to serving UC Berkeley students through educational, programmatic, and professional development opportunities—including its work study program, the largest of its kind on the UC Berkeley campus. Students are an indispensable part of both the staff and audience at BAMPFA and are critical to advancing the museum’s mission of igniting community engagement through art and film.

// For more information and tickets to the 2024 Art and Film Benefit, visit bampfa.org/benefit

Kathy Geritz, Leila Weefur, Cauleen Smith, Megan Steinman, and Leigh Raiford at the 2023 Art and Film Benefit. (Courtesy of BAMPFA)