Dior is to sponsor the Guggenheim Museum’s 2013 Guggenheim International Gala (or GIG as in-the-know socialites and NYC art types call the annual event) this November. 

The gala is a fundraising event for the New York art gallery, and celebrates two contemporary artists who have shown their work at the Guggenheim this year, James Turrell (his work with light is pictured above) and Christopher Wool. Tickets are available for the event from the Guggenheim’s website but this is the New York philanthropy scene we’re talking about here so prices are high: tables start at $25,000 and go up to $75,000. 

Dior’s involvement in the gala is particularly exciting because as Jennifer Blei Stockman, president of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, who will serve as the GIG’s honorary co-chair with Dior's creative director Raf Simons, tells Women’s Wear Daily:  ‘This time a lot is changing because Christian Dior is an active partner. The whole company is very, very art savvy.’

Simons often references art in his collections, and he told WWD that when was researching Dior before taking on his current role he discovered that Christian Dior was a gallerist prior to becoming a designer. ‘He had very strong connections to art — Salvador Dalí, the main artists of his time, which is not known to everybody,’ he says.