The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that the upcoming Met Gala in New York City has been postponed indefinitely.
The event, an annual fundraiser for the museum’s Costume Institute, was set to take place on May 4. The theme was “About Time: Fashion and Duration.”
“The Museum will remain closed through Saturday, April 4. Additionally, the CDC advised over the weekend that there should not be any gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks. In deference to this guidance, all programs and events through May 15 will be canceled or postponed,” a museum spokesperson said in a statement.
Vogue editor-in-chief and gala co-chair Anna Wintour also made the announcement on the magazine’s website.
“One day that will not arrive on schedule will be the opening of the Costume Institute’s exhibition, About Time,” she wrote in a letter that also served as Vogue’s endorsement of Joe Biden for president. “Due to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan Museum to close its doors, About Time, and the opening night gala, will not take place on the date scheduled. In the meantime, we will give you a preview of this extraordinary exhibition in our forthcoming May issue.”
Wintour’s fellow co-chairs were to include Louis Vuitton designer Nicolas Ghesquière, Emma Stone, Meryl Streep and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Formally called the Costume Institute Gala, the event was started in 1948. It has raised more than $200 million since Wintour became the chairperson of the Institute in 1995.