When it comes to one-of-a-kind themes for a fundraiser, you just can’t beat the ones dreamed up for Design After Dark. I mean, how many “ish” parties have there been?
And that’s the whole point.
The creative souls associated with the Denver Art Museum’s Department of Architecture, Design and Graphics always manage to come up with something too cool for words, and this year it was an “ish” party.
Members of the department’s support group, the Design Council, asked a host of Denver-area artists, designers and architects to produce works of art inspired by words ending with the letters “ish.” The pieces would be auctioned at the Feb. 1 Design After Dark held at Exdo Event Center.
One piece that generated considerable attention was “Plastic Paradox,” by Tim Melchior and Heather Saunders of EDAW. Building on the word “perish,” they took a Nerf ball that had been pulled from a trash repository in the Pacific Ocean and encased it in resin, offering a comment on man’s influence on the evironment.
Admirers, and bidders, included event chairs Megan Hudacky and Steve Chucovich; Design Council president Linda Nelson; past president Paul Stewart; and Darrin Alfred, the museum’s new assistant curator of graphic design.
Alfred comes to the position funded by the American Institute of Graphic Artists from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and his duties include overseeing an 8,000- piece collection that the AIGA donated to the Denver Art Museum in 2003.
It’s all good.
“Heart art” created by local and national celebrities will be up for bid Feb. 16 when The Landmark hosts The Hearts of Children Celebration at 5555 Greenwood Plaza Blvd. A $60 donation includes cocktails and small-plate refreshments; proceeds go to the Children’s Hospital Heart Institute and the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect. Planners include Walt and Georgia Imhoff, Steve and Faye Demby, Edie Bell, Dianne Honig, Lyn Schaffer and Kelly Potter. Call 303-721-0500 . . . Publicist Sharon Cooper co-authored the just-published book “The Night of the Witching Moon,” an as-told-to story about local psychic Linda Allen, and will be signing copies at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch … The Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is accepting applications for its 2008 Circle of Latina Leadership; Erika Reyes has details at 303-534-7783 . . . Pat Bowlen and the Denver Broncos Football Club are to receive the 2008 Champion of Youth Award from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver. It will be presented at the May 2 Youth of the Year Dinner and is a gesture of appreciation for Bowlen’s $1.2 million pledge to the organization and the Broncos’ commitment to expanding the Boys and Girls Clubs by building the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center . . . Tracey Blustein has been named executive director of Adoption Alliance. She comes to the job following a two-year sabbatical in India and leadership roles with ArtReach and Colorado Ballet . . . The local chapter of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic has received a $10,500 grant from the Melvin and Elaine Wolf Foundation.
dp|See more pictures from the Denver Art Museum’s “ish” party
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, blogs.denver
