Featuring 25 distinctive, exclusive activities from around the world with notable figures in art, architecture, and design, including a hot tub roundtable with Charles Renfro, Copenhagen power plant test with Bjarke Ingels, birdwatching with Jeanne Gang, and home library reading with Barry Bergdoll
Spring Party will feature performance by new super group LÁ-BAS
Media Contacts:
Steven Thomson (212) 924-7000 x 12 | sthomson@vanalen.org
Mathilde Campergue (917) 881-9003 | mathilde@hellothirdeye.com
NEW YORK, May 12, 2015 – Van Alen Institute has launched the Auction of Art + Design Experiences with online platform Paddle8, featuring 25 international experiences with leading names in the creative world. Highlights from the second Auction of Art + Design Experiences include:
- Fire Island hot tub roundtable with architect Charles Renfro at his mid-century modern beach house
- Test the smoke ring generator at Copenhagen’s new waste-to-energy power plant with Bjarke Ingels and BIG partner Jakob Lange
- Join architect Jeanne Gang for a birdwatching expedition in an iconic urban park
- Hop into Lord Norman Foster‘s personal helicopter and zoom through London’s transforming skyline, including the architect’s own icons
- Meet menswear designer Patrik Ervell in his NYC studio for a private fitting, and admire your new look as he shakes a round of his favorite cocktails
- Take a Pacific coast hike with Airbnb co-founder and green design guru Joe Gebbia as the RISD grad shares his next-big-idea watch list
- Enjoy brunch at the Paris studio of architect and artist Didier Faustino and make an excursion to the stunning property and art collection of gallerist Natalie Seroussi in Meudon
- Talk books and develop a custom reading list at the Harlem or Orient home libraries of architectural historian and former MoMA chief curator of architecture and design Barry Bergdoll
- Join Sotheby’s chairman and social savant Lisa Dennison for her daily salon blowout ritual as she offers tips on building a bluechip art collection, followed by a personalized tour of MoMA’s permanent holdings
- Navigate the disappearing Mississippi River Delta from a small plane with architect Trey Trahan
- Join designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg in the home they designed for themselves in one of the Richard Meier towers on Manhattan’s West Side for a dinner and design trend discussion with Interior Design magazine editor-in-chief Cindy Allen
- Pen your own persuasive newspaper op-ed with seasoned writer Fred Bernstein
- Get a tutorial on how to document the city digitally from some of the most closely-followed Instagrammers on the scene: art director and Thom Browne collaborator Matthew Foley (@mjfiii) and designer Eric Petschek (@cb)
Bidding for the Auction of Art + Design Experiences opens Wednesday, May 6 and closes Wednesday, May 20, online at: paddle8.com/auction/vanalen
Images of the auction items are available at: http://bit.ly/1OE6P6i
“We’re thrilled to offer such enticing and unusual opportunities to engage with notable individuals and institutions across the worlds of architecture, art, and design,” said Van Alen Institute executive director David van der Leer. “It’s the ideal way to honor the Institute’s work leveraging design to transform people’s lives.”
“It’s exciting to witness the Institute bring together so many game changers from around the world as we celebrate the organization,” said Stephen Cassell, chair of Van Alen’s Board of Trustees and principal of Architecture Research Office.
The auction accompanies the Van Alen Institute Spring Party on Wednesday, May 13 at The Surrogate’s Courthouse, 31 Chambers St. in Lower Manhattan. Beginning with a seated dinner and performance by My Midnight Heart, the party will feature DJ David Pacho and a performance by LÁ-BAS. Heralded as a “Brooklyn-based dystopian funk super group” by NPR’s “All Songs Considered,” LÁ-BAS includes members of Beirut, St. Vincent, the David Byrne band, MS MR, The Cardigans, and War on Drugs.
Chaired by Rafael de Cárdenas (Architecture At Large), Jared Della Valle (Alloy), Priscilla Fraser (LACMA), Andre Kikoski (Andre Kikoski Architect), Jonathan Marvel (Marvel Architects), Tom Scerbo (AECOM), Hunter Tura (Bruce Mau Design), and Maria Wilpon (Stantec), the Spring Party is spearheaded by a committee of 36 architects, designers, writers, and supporters of Van Alen Institute.
Tickets for the 2015 Spring Party can be purchased here: http://bit.ly/1bb2kO6
###
About Van Alen Institute
At Van Alen Institute, we believe design can transform cities, landscapes, and regions to improve people’s lives. We collaborate with communities, scholars, policymakers, and professionals on local and global initiatives that rigorously investigate the most pressing social, cultural, and ecological challenges of tomorrow. Building on more than a century of experience, we develop cross-disciplinary research, provocative public programs, and inventive design competitions.
Website: past.vanalen.org
Facebook: /vanaleninstitute
Twitter: @van_alen
Instagram: @van_alen
About Paddle8
Paddle8 is an auction house for the twenty-first century. We present online auctions of trusted inventory as well as benefit auctions in collaboration with leading museums and foundations, all hosted on an elegant platform that makes collecting swift and seamless. To date, Paddle8 has partnered with over 200 non-profit organizations worldwide to present their benefit auctions online, dramatically expanding the audience of supporters and fundraising results for each auction. Founded in 2011 by Alexander Gilkes, an auctioneer and LVMH veteran, and Aditya Julka, a Harvard Business School MBA and serial entrepreneur, Paddle8 today has over 50 employees worldwide, with teams in New York, L.A., and London. Paddle8 is funded by the investors behind Uber, Vimeo, Buzzfeed, Paperless Post, Warby Parker, and Bonobos, among others, as well as art-world insiders Damien Hirst, Jay Jopling, and Matthew Mellon. Access Paddle8 auctions anytime at Paddle8.com or through Paddle8’s iPhone app, available for free in the App Store.