2,000 lbs of Ribs? Count Me In.

Before I articulate to you the ridiculous, over-the-top extent to which Performa 09 opened a couple of weeks ago with a food event, let me remind you about one of the upcoming "foodie" events at the Biggs Museum....

If you haven't bought your tickets yet to Artful Dining this Friday, shame on you. If you don't decide to join us, that only leaves more Nage leftover goodness and PortoVino Groovy Italian Wine to enjoy after all the diners have left. So hop to it, chop chop.

I thought a three-course meal and an abundance of fine Italian wine on a Friday night in the Museum galleries was "Artful Dining", but I think Performa 09 has got us beat. They seem to have completely redefined the concept of Artful Dining. Performa is a biennial three-week visual performance arts festival held in Manhattan dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the 21st century.

Jennifer Rubell, daughter of two art collectors, designed a "food event" party/benefit to open the 2009 fesitval at the X Initiative in Chelsea. Her interactive culinary experience was based on the book of Genesis in the Bible. Over 600 guests, including Mario Batali, roamed the three floors taken over by the party beginning with with the option to choose from 3,600 drinking glasses, representing the "beautiful fragility" of the Garden of Eden. After passing a pyramid of unshelled peanuts, guests moved to the 2nd floor for a hit of protein at a station holding over 2,000 lbs of ribs being soaked with honey falling from the ceiling. No need to worry about those sticky fingers, plenty of wet-naps were provided.

Dessert was obviously not neglected as the final course . Fallen apple trees were scattered throughout the floor and seven pedestals were topped with chocolate bunnies similar to Jeff Koon's stainless steels version. Hammers were provided to everyone to smash the bunnies...an illusion to the expulsion from Eden.

If the photos aren't enough of a visual for you to imagine the wildness of this event, the New York Times did a great video of the event. I forwarded the ribs photo to the Director, possibility for the 2010 Biggs Museum Gala.... maybe we'll have 1500 lbs of buffalo wings at next year's event.

Obama Says,"Let's hear it for Hollywood."

You'd think Obama had just put down last week's issue of People Magazine when he chose the 25 appointees/members for the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities yesterday. I kid. I kid.

The new committee members represent some of Hollywood's finest to old-school cultural leaders. Some of the more famous names include actors Sarah Jessica Parker, Edward Norton, Forest Whitaker and Alfre Woodard, "Vogue" editor Anna Wintour, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, theater director George C. Wolfe and architect Thom Mayne.

What are these fine arts representatives charged with? This committee, established in 1982, works with organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities to encourage partnerships between the public and private sector on cultural projects. The committee also seeks to initiate and support cultural programs, according to its official website.

Vice President Joe Biden will install the 25 new members today. The newbies will be led by First lady Michelle Obama as the honorary chairwoman and film producer George Stevens Jr. and theater producer Margo Lion had already been named as its co-chairs.

With all this talk of health-care reform these days, little has been said in the media on what Obama plans to do for the arts during his tenure as president. During his campaign he made a few hints.

-Reinvest in arts education. Woo hoo for more public/private partnerships between schools and arts organizations!

- Financially support the NEA

-Send more American artists abroad

-Attract foreign talent
- To provide affordable health care and tax fairness to artists. Did you know when artists make charitable contributions of their work, they are only reimbursed for supplies, not their time? So not fair.

Seems like Anna and SJP have some work on their hands. I'm anxious to see what they can do for culture and arts in the United States. Until then, congrats!

Lehman Bro's Art is Going, Going, Sold!

It feels like it was yesterday in September 2008 when the hard crash that put us in a recession occured. Lehman Brother's was just one of the many financial institutes that did not escape the realms of bankruptcy. Still today, they owe their creditors about $250 billion, ouch. So how to raise some cash quickly? Auction off your office artwork. A sale at Freeman's Auction House yesterday raised over $1.35 million from the sales of 283 modern artworks. Every piece up for sale had an owner by the end of the day. $1.35 million was quite impressive as it doubled the original estimate for this part of the collection ($760,800).

All of these artworks used to line the office hallways of Lehman Bros. in New York, Delaware and Boston. Around 2,000 collectors, former Lehman staff and art novices keen to pick up a bit of banking history had signed up to bid at the auction. An estimated 400 people bid in person with the rest taking part over the telephone or online.

Lehman Bro.'s will unload another collection of 650 pieces on December 6 at Freeman's once again. This money raised will also go towards repayment to Lehman creditors. A third auction is scheduled in February 2010.

Happy Halloween

I've gone from not partaking in any Halloween festivities last year, to two parties and two different costumes this year. I hope I'll be able to keep my characters straight! Anyway you celebrate, Halloween is a creative and artful day. Acting...transforming into a different person, or at times an inanimate object. Crafting...staples and a hot glue gun can work wonders for novice costume makers. Dance and sing...who doesn't 'boo'gey down on Halloween? Culinary Arts...I contribute to 25% of the world's consumption of candy corn.

I hope you all have an artfully fantastic Halloween. To kick off the weekend, I googled Best Costume Ever. And this is what I got. P.S. You HAVE to watch it until the end! Amazing.

Not Your Average Neckwear...

I have to admit, from what I recall seeing Michael Phelps donned with all of those Olympic Medals at the 2008 Beijing games, I wasn't paying too much attention to the medals if you know what I mean. But our neighbor Vancouver has caught my attention: they just unveiled the designs of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games medals. They're awesome.

The process took over two years, beginning in December 2007 with over 48 proposals from Canadian and internationally-run design firms. Before I go on to explain the awesomeness that is the design, I'd like to mention these are the heaviest medals ever made for the Olympic games, weighing in at a record 500-576 grams. And they're made from recycled electronics, so your old HP could be hanging on the neck of the next Michelle Kwan.

Hunt, a Vancouver-based artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage, chose the orca and the raven as motifs for the Olympic and Paralympic medals respectively, representing important attributes in Canadian Aboriginal history. The Paralympians symbol, the rave, is often associated with transformation and healing abilities and represents determination, creativity and wisdom. The Ocra is often associated with the attributes of strength, dignity and teamwork. The sleek and powerful black and white whales are common to travel in pods through the waters off Canada’s West Coast, but are also found in all the world’s oceans.

Each medal will be struck nine times (this is just one of 30 steps in the fabrication process) to achieve a distinctive look. The medals are undulating and wavy (representing Canada's mountains, sea and snow) rather than flat, a first in the Games history.

The Royal Canadian Mint has been charged with making all 1014 medals for the games. Their web-site offers an interactive tour and video, so you can see how they're made.

The Usual Mona Lisa Suspects

There's been some talk recently about whether or not Ms. Lisa is actually smiling in DaVinci's Mona Lisa portrait. And according to the Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain, it's in our heads to decide. But anyways, onto a more important topic....what if the Mona Lisa wasn't acutally "gasp!" Mona Lisa? The horror!

According to Roberto Zapperi, the painting (which is actually referred to as La Giocondo) does not depict Lisa del Giocondo, the wide of the welathy Florentine merchant for whom the painting was reportedly commissioned. Roberto says the woman in the painting is Pacifica (awesome name, right?) Brandani, on of Julien de Medicis' many lovers.

What gives Roberto the idea that Pacifica is the woman in the portrait? He discovered written minutes from a meeting between da Vinci and Cardinal Louis d'Aragon. daVinci presented the Cardinal with three paintings; including the Mona Lisa, which was allegedly a portrait of Brandani commissioned by de Medicis. This leads me to wonder, if Julien de Medicis commissioned the portrait, then why didn't he own it? Well, Brandani died shortly after she had an illegitimate child with her lover. There's your explanation.

Roberto thinks its unfortunate that experts have known for many years about Brandani's identity, but choose to ignore it and favor Vasari's 1550 version of the events, which posits that the image is of Lisa del Giocondo, who “did not even know Julien de Médicis,” according to Zapperi.

This obviously hasn't stopped the crowds from coming in droves to the Louvre to see the woman every single day. Speaking of daVinci, the Biggs staff is having a video web conference with some of the staff members of the Leonardo daVinci Museum today to begin working on a new project. I think some very exciting times are ahead for us. Stay tuned.

Non-Profit (or Doing) of the Week: Uniformed Fashion

Twelve school years of my life was spent in plaid. Plaid jumpers then plaid skirts. Polo shirts in the fall and spring were traded for pressed (thank you mother) white button downs with sweater vests and at times a ridiculous cross-over button Girl Scout-like navy tie. Other than tag days (you could wear whatever you please) once a month, the biggest school clothing shopping decision of the year were the shoes on your feet. How was one to express their individuality? The girls found ways around it of course...makeup, jewelery, accessories, the latest LL Bean backpack pattern. I always remember being fond of a head band Mom made for me in 3rd grade. She had hot glued pieces of candy corn on a black headband for me. I was the talk of the home room the entire month of October.

These days, I'm embarrassed to say I hate to wear anything twice. But there's a girl, Sheena Matheiken, who has gone the opposite route. As the Founder of the Uniform Project, Sheena is wearing one dress every day of one year all in the name of charity and sustainable fashion. This gal has seven identical black dresses, one for every day of the week, and is seeing just how far she can push the creative envelope with diversification of the outfit.

Each day she posts a picture of herself. And each day, she looks quite different. She works the outfit with different accessories and layers which she claims to purchase from eBay and Etsy.com . You can view all of the photos which includes shopping information on where to buy all of her add-on wardrobe items.

Charity is her first motive for the project. Sheena is asking for donations for the duration of the year that will benefit Akanksha Foundation, a grassroots charity based in Mumbai, whose contributions go to fund uniforms and other school expenses for children in the slums of India. Sustainability is her second motive, which is to stop consuming and reusing. The dress was designed with the help of Eliza Starbuck, and is wearable year-round. This short-sleeve, button-down dress can be worn backwards and also as a long cardigan.

Sheena has raised over $14,000 since she began this project in May 2009. I'm looking forward to watching her remix the dress for the next six month. Who knew the power of a dress?