The first six months of 2012 were super exciting! I had the pleasure of working with some previous clients on their current events, one of which is NYFA. If you don’t know anything about New York Foundation for the Arts you should really take a spin around their website… they offer so many opportunities for artists it’s really quite mind boggling. For the second year NYFA asked for my assistance with their Hall of Fame Benefit, this year held in April at Espace in Manhattan. The space has a very modern, clean vibe and is a virtual blank canvas which was perfect for this benefit that incorporates installations from selected artists. I was given a black and white color palette and chose to create one of a kind felted pods in black and gray tones that would be tucked amongst beautiful white tulips in square ceramic cubes for the tables. I have been working with fiber most recently in my own artwork & thought it would be interesting to explore melding this with fresh floral and what better audience/event to experiment with!
Among the honorees of this year’s celebration was Christian Marclay most recently praised for his film The Clock. I was thrilled to hear this as we are both Massachusetts College of Art (MCA) alum from the Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM) department. Everyone who spoke that evening was so inspiring, I still smile when thinking about Suzan-Lori Parks, one of the honorees, speaking… her spirit is infectious!
Generally I am not at an event so it was interesting to see people’s reactions to the table settings and to see what happened at the end of the evening. At the close of the dinner the table settings were gathered in order to wrap the bouquets & hand them to guests as they were leaving, a sort of impromptu performance… the reactions were great! What I noticed though was many of the felted pods had been taken out of the florals or people were requesting bouquets with the felted pods as they were handed out! It was super to see the interaction with the table settings & it has inspired me to push this idea further in my event designs… we’ll see what’s in store for future clients who are open to something a bit out of the ordinary!
I look forward to working with NYFA again in the future and am grateful that they support the artist community including hiring artists as event vendors…including myself and DJ Lightbolt whose work you can check out HERE.
Other moments in the evening that have stayed with me…the hopeful words of the husband + wife team of Elizabeth Diller + Ricardo Scofidio, a brief interaction with Adam Weinberg of the Whitney Museum, and being in the same space as so many artists, all notable in their own way, & supporters of the arts made for an unforgettable experience…
