The annual Met Gala raises funds for the Costume Institute of which New York museum?

The annual Met Gala raises funds for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The event is formally called the Costume Institute Benefit and supports the department devoted to the history and art of dress at New York’s Met museum.

Fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert established the gala in 1948 as a fundraiser connected to the Costume Institute’s annual exhibition. The early event was a dinner benefit held at different Manhattan venues, rather than the highly photographed red-carpet spectacle now associated with it.

The gala is held around the opening of the Institute’s spring exhibition and is organized with Vogue. Its theme usually reflects that exhibition, encouraging guests to interpret historical, artistic, or cultural ideas through clothing. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is often shortened to “the Met,” which can cause confusion with other New York institutions, but the fundraiser is specifically for the Costume Institute at the museum on Fifth Avenue.