MoAD Raises Over $1 Million at Twentieth-Anniversary Gala

San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a record-breaking Afropolitan Ball benefit on October 4 at the San Francisco Ferry Building. The dazzling event raised over $1 million for museum operations, exhibitions and programs. MoAD Board Chair Eric McDonnell and Event Chair Peggy Woodford Forbes joined Executive Director and CEO Monetta White for a black-tie celebration that served as the capstone of the second annual Nexus: SF/Bay Area Black Art Week, drawing distinguished guests from art, entertainment, fashion and philanthropy including former San Francisco Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr.

The evening also honored the late Belva Davis, MoAD’s first board president, whose leadership and spirit of community was critical to the museum’s 2005 founding. Guests were treated to delectable dinner from Foxtail Catering & Events, and Alonzo King LINES Ballet delivered a captivating performance previewing their April 2026 collaboration with Grammy Award-winning musician Esperanza Spalding. Artists including Ayana V. Jackson, Yasmin Lambie-Simpson, George McCalman and Gustavo Nazareno joined in the celebration of one of the Bay Area’s most beloved cultural institutions, helping to fulfill its mission by placing contemporary artists of the African Diaspora at the center of global conversation.