LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Hammer Museum announced today that actor and activist Jane Fonda and artist Lauren Halsey will be honored at the 20th annual Gala in the Garden on Saturday, May 17, 2025. The Hammer’s annual event honors artists and innovators who have made profound contributions to society through their work.

Hammer Director Zoë Ryan said, “Jane Fonda has been a force for change for 50 years, as much for her contributions to cinema as for her outspoken activism. She has been especially vocal as an advocate for protecting the environment, founding the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, and speaking regularly to raise awareness about the unprecedented threats we all face. Lauren Halsey is one of the most dynamic artists working today, with an upcoming sculpture park scheduled to open in South Central Los Angeles in 2026. Through her nonprofit Summaeverythang Community Center, she helps to feed the community with produce boxes sourced from local farms. Both Jane and Lauren are committed to building a more just world—a value at the core of the Hammer’s mission—and we are fortunate to have them as part of our community.”

The museum’s largest fundraising event attracts cultural and civic leaders in Los Angeles, as well as artists, collectors, and patrons of the arts. The last Gala in the Garden in 2024, which celebrated previous Hammer director Ann Philbin on the occasion of her retirement, raised $3.6 million for the museum.

Proceeds from the gala support the Hammer’s dynamic and internationally acclaimed exhibitions and public programs. Exhibitions on view at the time of the Gala in the Garden will include Head for the Hills! Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection and Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts; Performance on Paper; and three Hammer Projects featuring artists Colectivo Cherani, Lap-See Lam, and Renata Petersen.

Since 2005, the Hammer’s Gala in the Garden has honored an artist and a cultural luminary who have made profound contributions to society through their work. Past honorees include Hilton Als, Laurie Anderson, Margaret Atwood, John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, Judy Chicago, Joan Didion, Ava DuVernay, Dave Eggers, Charles Gaines, Frank Gehry, Robert Gober, Matt Groening, Todd Haynes, Diane Keaton, Mike Kelley, Barbara Kruger, Tony Kushner, Glenn Ligon, Paul McCarthy, Joni Mitchell, Catherine Opie, Jordan Peele, Lari Pittman, Miuccia Prada, Charles Ray, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Chase Strangio, Kara Walker, and Alice Waters.

Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor, producer, author, activist, and fitness guru. Her career has spanned over 50 years, accumulating a body of film work that includes more than 50 films and significant contributions to political causes such as women’s rights, Native Americans’ rights, and environmental protection. She is a seven-time Golden Globe® winner and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2021. She accepted The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. In April of 2024, Fonda accepted the TIME Magazine Earth Award. She is also set to receive the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in February 2025.

In addition to her storied film career, Fonda continues to lead the charge on the climate emergency via Fire Drill Fridays, the national movement to protest government inaction on climate change, which she started in October 2019 in partnership with Greenpeace USA. In 2022, she launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, focused on electing climate champions to state and local office. Her latest book, “What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action,” details her personal journey with the movement and provides solutions for communities to combat the climate crisis. Notably, Jane celebrated her 85th birthday by raising $1 million for her nonprofit, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential (GCAPP).

Lauren Halsey was born in 1987 in Los Angeles, where she lives and works. Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Exhibitions include we still here, there, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018); Too Blessed 2 be Stressed!, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2019); The Banner Project, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2021–22); and Seattle Art Museum (2022). Halsey participated in Made in L.A. 2018 at the Hammer, where she was awarded the Mohn Award for artistic excellence. In 2021, Halsey received the Gwendolyn Knight | Jacob Lawrence Prize from the Seattle Art Museum. In 2023, she installed the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I), a commission for the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Her installation keepers of the known (2024) was included in Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere as part of the 60th Biennale di Venezia. Her UK debut and solo exhibition, emajendat, is on view at the Serpentine, London through March 2025, and a sculpture park titled sister dreamer, lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles, will open in early 2026 in Los Angeles.