The Tamesis
“Joyful!” “Optimistic!” “Electroplated!” “Passionate!” These were the uplifting adjectives heard around the dinner table at the inaugural Make Their Mark forum at the Ned Club in Washington, D.C., on Friday night. Guests responded enthusiastically when conference planner Komal Shah, a California collector and philanthropist, asked them to describe the three-day gathering experience in one word.
“Inspiring,” added Jodie Foster, who had been in conversation hours earlier with Rajendra Roya, chief curator of the film department at the Museum of Modern Art, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Other keynote speakers include Dr. Chelsea Clinton and Ava Duvernay; the highest-grossing black female director in U.S. box office history.
It was this spirit of camaraderie between many of the most influential and ambitious women in the world of arts and culture that defined the entire forum, which was attended by some 350 rapt guests, almost all of whom were personally invited by the Shah. Dedicated to expanding the achievements of female artists and promoting gender equality in the arts, Shah also established a foundation and traveling exhibition called “Leave Their Mark.” (Since debuting in New York in 2023, the Cecilia Alemani-curated exhibition has shown at several U.S. institutions; it opened at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington this past February and will run until at least 2027.) After the huge success of her Manhattan show’s panel series, Shah tells us Fashion She felt the need to “take a more aggressive stance.” She hopes the all-encompassing three-day forum format will help ignite “lasting change.”
“I’m very intentional about the people on stage and the audience. That’s important
We create something that is both inspiring and grounded in reality,” Shah said
Planning, covering art education, museum acquisition practices and estate planning, as well as a data-driven overview of the place of women artists in the contemporary art market. Performances, film screenings, poetry readings and museum visits are also on the itinerary.
Shah added: “Constructing stories and arguments is what I do best.” It seems that throwing a party is a close second. At the forum’s VIP dinner, Audemars Piguet Contemporary (an art commission project of the Swiss watchmaker) hosted every detail, even the customized Monse scarf each guest received. As an investor in the fashion label helmed by Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, Shah commissioned an exclusive design featuring a hand-painted cherry print from the Pre-Fall 2026 collection.
The guest list is dominated by the forum’s trailblazing speakers, such as museum directors Anne Pasternak (Brooklyn Museum) and Kaywin Feldman (National Gallery of Art, Washington); artists Joyce J. Scott and Tschabalala Self; and auction industry veterans Bonnie Brennan (CEO, Christie’s) and Amy Cappellazzo (founder, Art Intelligence Global). Director and CEO of the Guggenheim Museum and Foundation), Sarah Arison (Chair of the Board of Trustees of MoMA), and Ann Philbin (Former Director of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles).
Also in attendance was courageous artist and forum speaker Marilyn Minter, whose recent documentary very dirty Screened during the conference. Minter told us it was “an honor” to be in the company of such esteemed activists and artists Fashion One of her biggest takeaways from the event came from the help of Jodie Foster. “She blew me away,” Minter said, citing Foster’s stance on “trusting your talent” and the importance of maintaining a calm mind to produce your best work. Minter’s list of “exciting” speakers also included Dr. Clinton, who discussed how culture affects policy with her close friend Dr. Sarah Lewis. “It’s powerful to be with the Make Your Mark community today; a group that works tirelessly to ensure more female artists are seen and heard in this moment and into the future,” Dr. Clinton told us Fashion earlier in the day. “It’s inspiring and inspiring — and it’s just the beginning.”
Mutual admiration and a sense of urgency to push for change together were common sentiments. “Check
100 powerful people (mostly powerful women) gathered to celebrate and watch
“It was beautiful inside and out and made the night so memorable,” recalls Shah. “Every table told me they had a great conversation.”
The art of a king’s dinner party? Even after a delicious meal of toffee pudding, the guests’ desire for real change was heightened.
