Reasons to Revel

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles County Museum of Art got the star treatment on Feb. 9, when the opening of its new Broad Contemporary At Museum attracted a red-carpet crowd. The glitterati guest list included Christina Aguilera, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper, Angelica Huston, and Nicole Ritchie, just to name a few, while art-world luminaries in attendance included the Broads themselves, John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakami. They were all treated to musical performances, including one by Lionel Ritchie, before they caught the first glimpse of the BCAM's inaugural installation featuring 200 works by major postwar artists including Richard Serra,  Burden, Cindy Sherman, Koons, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg.

The museum world found another reason to party a few weeks before that, on Jan. 15, when Alice Walton, founder of the Crystal Bridges art museum being constructed in Bentonville, Ark., was honored by the Olana Partnership. Walton and John Wilmerding, one of the most respected scholars and authorities on American art, were recognized by the foundation for "their deep commitment to the art world and the role of American artists in shaping our country" at the partnership's Frederic Edwin Church Award Dinner at the Hotel Pierre in New York.