Gala Dalí: A discussion Featuring Michèle Gerber Klein
May 1 @ 6:00pm – 7:30pm
Join us for an engaging discussion with author and philanthropist Michèle Gerber Klein. Gerber Klein will be joined by Dr. Kimberly Macuare, Director of Education and Co-Director of Innovation Labs at The Dalí to discuss Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dalí.
Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dalí, Gerber Klein’s second book, the long-awaited, definitive biography of Gala Dalí unmasks this famous yet little-known queen of the twentieth-century art world, who graced the canvases, inspired the poetry, and influenced the careers of her illustrious lovers and husbands with courage, agency and tenderness.
Location: The Dalí Museum’s Will Raymund Theater or live on YouTube (link below).
This event is free with limited capacity. An event ticket is required for entry.
Gallery access is not included.
To watch the live stream from home, click below at the time of the program:
Michèle Gerber Klein is an author and philanthropist. Her first biography, Charles James: Portrait of an Unreasonable Man, was published by Rizzoli ex Libris in 2018. The Financial Times called it “uproarious,” and named it a Best Book of the year.
Her latest work, Surreal: The Extraordinary Life of Gala Dalí, published by Harper Collins in April 2025, tells the riveting life story of Gala Dalí, Salvador Dalí’s wife, partner, and muse. A charismatic, uninhibited woman, she drove pre-war Paris’ legendary Surrealist movement where she bore the mantle of ‘the mother of Surrealism.’ As Dalí’s great love, artistic collaborator, and the genius behind his vast fortune, Gala influenced the cultural history of the twentieth century.
Gerber Klein has served as the Vice President of the Bertha and Isaac Liberman Foundation since 1997. In 2011, she received the Mann Foundation’s Woman of the Year award for her work in fashion and philanthropy. She is the Honorary Chair of the Whitney Museum’s Studio Forum and a member of the museum’s Photography Acquisitions Committee. In addition, she sits on the Architecture and Design, and Film and Photography Acquisitions Committees at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. She also serves on the board of L’Alliance NYC and is a contributor to The Brooklyn Rail.
Gerber Klein was born in New Mexico and raised in New York City where she attended the Lycée Français and graduated from The Brearley School. After Bryn Mawr College, where she earned a B.A. degree in English literature, she founded joan vass U.S.A., a knit wear collection, with Joan Vass, the designer and Coty Award recipient. She lives and works in Manhattan.
Dr. Kimberly Macuare, Director of Education and Co-Director of Innovation Labs at The Dalí, is an experienced educator, curriculum designer and facilitator. For over 20 years, she has designed world-class learning experiences—college courses, workshops, leadership retreats, team building sessions, and keynote presentations—and, most recently, has been responsible for the award-winning curriculum of creativity and innovation workshops and offerings at The Innovation Labs at The Dalí. In her role at The Dalí, she has helped a wide range of organizations, from local nonprofits CASA and Community Foundation of Tampa Bay to educational institutions University of South Florida and Florida Poly to Fortune 100 companies Bank of America and IBM, build their innovation capacities by developing creativity-focused mindsets and learning key creative problem-solving skills.
In addition to supporting external clients, she also takes an active role in innovative projects and initiatives across The Dalí Museum organization, including creating new programs for museum audiences and leading all-staff creative thinking and problem-solving projects.
She has extensive experience in arts-based creativity training and is a certified trainer of leading research-based creativity and innovation tools FourSight Mindset and Toolset as well as a certified facilitator of LEGO® Serious Play®. She also teaches a creativity course in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida. Kim holds a BA in English from the University of Cincinnati, an MA in English from The Ohio State University and a PhD in English with a specialization in medieval literature and economics from The Ohio State University.
