Tuesday night it was ‘Dinner at Tiffany’s’ with Becky Birdwell and the Design Leadership Network! The experience was more like bring in a James Bond movie than a normal shopping experience on the floor of this legendary jewelry store…
Rosanne Somerson and others on stage at her RISD Inauguration Photo: Jo Sittenfeld / RISD Media
RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) had much to celebrate with the inauguration of its 17th President this past week. Under an enormous tent near the school’s campus, hundreds of faculty, staff, friends, parents, dignitaries and alumni joyously celebrated. I am grateful to have been there to join the celebration!
After an exhaustive two year global quest to find the next President of America’s oldest art & design school, the President of the Board of Trustees Michael Spalter and his search team found exactly what they were looking for in Providence; they hired truly one of their own – Rosanne Somerson…
Donald Judd (1928-1994) Chair,1993 – Finish Color Plywood – RISD Museum
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A double take is an act of quickly looking at something that is surprising or unusual a second time after looking at it a moment earlier.
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The RISD Museum often focuses attention on a single object in an exciting program they call ‘DOUBLE TAKE’ where two different art/design educators or curators offer different perspectives or ‘takes’ on a single object in the museum collection. I have seen a number of these dialogues, they are fantastic!
One the items being featured in a new series DOUBLE TAKE: COLOR is a chair that I gave to the Museum designed by Donald Judd…
Feeling a bit like Marco Polo, I joined in the DLS’s full day tour of the studios of ‘Brooklyn Makers’ organized by Wanted Design founders Claire Pijoulat & Odile Hainaut.
While I had to keep checking a map to see where exactly we were, it was rewarding to meet and experience members of the rich creative community that’s developed in Brooklyn in recent years. Here are some of the craftsmen I found most interesting…
Recently a friend from California made the comment “Brooklyn is the hippest place on earth.”
And I thought, I live in Brooklyn. Well, actually Brooklyn Heights.
But the truth is Brooklyn is enormous, and has countless distinct neighborhoods including a multitude of ethnic groups – and the entire range of the socioeconomic spectrum – as well as pockets of unique and creative enterprises.
And while my neighborhood is very beautiful, it most certainly is not hip.
Now I admit I am older than 22; I have not grown the ubiquitous Brooklyn beard; and while I have seen and done some very cool things in Brooklyn, I cannot say I am on the pulse of all things Brooklyn.
I was looking forward to Day 2 of the Design Leadership Summit 2014 at Industry City in Brooklyn – wherever that turned out to be….