Get ready for ICA Annual Benefit 2021! On April 29, from 7-8PM, join us for an extraordinary virtual celebration honoring Dr. Kaja Silverman, distinguished art historian and Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Professor Emerita of Contemporary Art at The University of Pennsylvania, and world-renowned artist Charline von Heyl.
Tune in for remarks from Zoë Ryan, ICA’s Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director, and hear tributes from a myriad of artists, scholars, curators, students, and supporters inspired by our honorees and who champion ICA’s mission and vision. Hear Dr. Kaja Silverman and Charline von Heyl, reunited in conversation with artist Carrie Schneider, a decade after von Heyl’s first U.S. museum survey at ICA and enjoy a special performance by musical duo, Enohem.
Event Details
7PM Virtual ICA Benefit 2021
ICA Benefit 2021 Co-Chairs
Julie Bernstein
Allison Rubler
Event Location
ICA’s first virtual Benefit will stream on ICA’s webpage.
Register online to receive event details 24 hours in advance.
The limited-edition print for ICA Annual Benefit 2021 has been graciously donated by artist Cauleen Smith. The work was taken from Black And Blue Over You (After Bas Jan Ader For Ishan); a short film featured as a part of Cauleen’s 2018 exhibition, Cauleen Smith: Give It or Leave It. A copy of this year’s print is available to supporters who contribute at the Muse or Golden Muse level.
ICA Benefit 2021 is free and open to the public; however, donations, of any size, are encouraged. Supporters at the following levels will receive additional benefits.
Golden Muse: $10,000 (tax-deductible amount $8,770)
• One framed limited-edition print by artist Cauleen Smith
• Prominent recognition in the event program
• Invitation to the virtual Golden Muse Cocktail Party
Muse: $5,000 (tax-deductible amount $4,000)
• One limited-edition print by artist Cauleen Smith
• Recognition in the event program
Angel: $2,500 (fully tax-deductible)
• Recognition in the event program
To contribute to ICA Annual Benefit 2021, please visit the event’s support page.
To learn more about the event and additional ways to support Benefit 2021, please contact Taja Jones, Associate Director of Development & Alumni Relations at tajaj@ica.upenn.edu.
Please make all checks payable to the “Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.” Checks may be mailed directly to:
University of Pennsylvania
Office of the Treasurer
P.O. Box 71332
Philadelphia, PA 19176-9913
About the Honorees

Dr. Kaja Silverman is the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Professor Emerita of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of nine critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from the female voice in cinema, to the life and work of artistic visionary James Coleman. She is currently working on the second of three interconnected volumes on the topic of photography. The first volume, The Miracle of Analogy, appeared in 2015.
Before joining the History of Art Department at Penn, Silverman taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley. She wrote Speaking About Godard during this period with Harun Farocki, with whom she also taught four seminars at Berkeley.
Earlier in her career, she taught at the University of Rochester, Brown University, Simon Fraser University, Trinity College, and Yale University. Shortly after arriving at Penn, Silverman was awarded a Distinguished Achievement Award by the Mellon Foundation, which has provided the motivation and the funding for a wide range of events: academic lectures, public conversations with artists and curators, artist residencies, and two major conferences, the first of which was in conjunction with Charline von Heyl’s exhibition at ICA.

Charline von Heyl was born in Germany in 1960 and has lived in the United States since 1996. She studied painting in Hamburg and Düsseldorf and participated in the Cologne-based art scene in the 1980s. She currently divides her time between New York, NY and Marfa, TX.
Von Heyl’s first survey show was at Le Consortium, Dijon in 2009. Her first U.S. museum show was at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2005 and her first U.S. survey was at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in 2011.
Her work has been exhibited both in the United States and abroad, including solo museum exhibitions at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2018), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC (2018); the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2018); the Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom (2012); the Kunsthalle Nurnberg, Germany (2012); Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2009), and the Vienna Secession, Vienna, Austria (2004), among many others.
Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Green Naftali, New York (2019); Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany (2017); Gladstone Gallery, New York (2018); The Institute of Contemporary Art Chicago (2016); Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2015); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014); Sculpture Center, New York (2011), and The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2008), among many others.
Von Heyl’s works are in the collections of the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Tate, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Hammer, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. She is represented by Petzel Gallery in New York, Galerie Gisela Capitain in Cologne, Galerie Capitain-Petzel in Berlin, and Corbett vs Dempsey in Chicago.