Architecture & Design Council Presents Design As Art At Palm Springs Museum

On Saturday, February 24, 2007, the Palm Springs Art Museum's Architecture & Design Council (ADC) will present Design As Art?-a special day-long symposium and reception in honor of Palm Springs Modernism Week. The day-long schedule includes a symposium in the Annenberg Theater from 9:30 a.m. to noon; lunch in the Marcuse Sculpture Garden; and a final panel discussion from 1-2 p.m.

The symposium will feature discussions on the role of design in our lives and how it is changing to create new shifts in our daily environment. Long seen as the functional poor cousin of art, design has now gained importance and cache as auction and gallery prices have sped upward. With technologically advanced production methods and computer-aided design, the line between art and design is blurred. But can design provoke and reflect our current culture as art can?

Symposium speakers include reputable industry names such as Cristina Grajales, Dealer/Consultant; Barbara Bloemink, Curatorial Director of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; and James Zemaitis, Director of Sotheby's 20-th Century Design Department. They will each weigh in on their perceptions of contemporary design.

Frances Anderton, producer of the KCRW public radio program Which Way L.A.?, and freelance architectural writer for the New York Times, will moderate an afternoon panel with the three speakers and designer Wendell Castle. This lively session will bring the points of view of the auction house, the gallery, the museum and designer into focus.

Tickets for the day are $75 for ADC members and $100 for nonmembers and can be purchased by calling the Annenberg Box Office at 760.325.4490.

The day will end with a special 6 p.m. cocktail reception at the O'Donnell and Escalante Architects-designed home of Andy Linsky and Michael Thomas with keynote speakers, ADC members and other VIP guests. Tickets to the cocktail party are only available to those who purchase tickets to the symposium and are an additional $125 for ADC members and $150 for nonmembers. -- www.psmuseum.org