Overview ArtCrush is the Aspen Art Museum's summer gala, a dinner under a tent at the base of Buttermilk Mountain with a live auction of donated art run by Christie's, and in 2024 the museum began letting artists keep a share of what their donated work sells for. It is the museum's largest annual fundraiser. The guest list is invitation-only, at about 560, and each gala honors one artist with the Lewis Family Art Award: Glenn Ligon in 2025, Adrián Villar Rojas in 2026. The Aspen Art Museum is an artist-founded, non-collecting museum built around exhibitions, and it marked its 45th anniversary in 2024. On site The auction lots hang at the museum for about two weeks before the gala, and online bidding runs alongside the live sale; in 2026 lots ranged from under $500 to over $500,000, and a design room, the Wunderkammer, was added with Design Miami. The gala follows the museum's AIR Festival. In 2025 the tent was themed Celestial Nights, a starlit dinner with wine pairings and projected media, and Christie's Adrien Meyer called the auction. An after party and a brunch the next day closed that weekend. Audience Most of the room travels in. The museum counts trustees and major donors of MoMA, the Whitney, LACMA, Tate and the Guggenheim among its guests, and in 2025 people flew in from London, Paris and Zurich as well as New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Palm Beach. Talent and Influencers Artists and curators come as guests: Ligon, KAWS, Thelma Golden, Maya Lin, Rashid Johnson, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Mickalene Thomas and Matthew Barney were in the tent in 2025. That year's auction carried donated work by Ligon, George Condo, Issy Wood and Reggie Burrows Hodges. The 2026 sale included Andy Warhol, Josef Albers, Leonora Carrington, Catherine Opie, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Villar Rojas. Sarah Arison, Charlie Pohlad and Jen Rubio chaired the 2025 gala. Track record The auction raised $3.8 million in 2023 and $4.5 million in 2024, the highest ArtCrush total up to then, in front of about 600 guests. The 2025 gala, the 20th, raised more than $4 million. Christie's began running the live auction in 2024. Brand presence ZEGNA presented the 2026 gala, with Bank of America among its other supporters. Partners can underwrite the event or its entertainment, carry a logo on the invitations and in the tent, put product into the guest takeaways and take seats at the gala. The museum adds introductions to its patrons with a jointly hosted event, entry to AIR Festival events and collection visits, a curator-led private tour for up to 15 with drinks on the museum roof, and the rooftop rental fee waived for a partner's own event.