Gallery Hopping with The New Yorker: A Designers Perspective on Passport to the Arts

A_O.jpgGallery hopping in Manhattan is a treat on most any Saturday, but The New Yorker‘s annual Passport to the Arts event adds a scavenger hunt twist, challenging participants to fill the creamy cardstock of their specially issued booklets with stamped versions of artworks (like the one at right, by Asuka Ohsawa) from each of the 28 participating galleries. While we were busy over at Sotheby’s enumerating the ways that a Cecily Brown canvas is a (much) wiser investment than a new boat, we dispatched UnBeige designer correspondent Prescott Perez-Fox to take a walk on the fine art side. Here’s his Passport report.

PtA09.jpg

Last Saturday, I stepped out for the fifth annual Passport to the Arts, an open-house tour of galleries in SoHo and Chelsea. The day-long event and evening reception was sponsored chiefly by The New Yorker promotion department. Proceeds from ticket sales and the silent auction benefitted Friends of the High Line, the “non-profit conservancy that provides over 70 percent of the High Line’s annual operating budget,” so the endeavor offered an element of community outreach, and not simply another chance for the art community to do its thing.

It seems to be an appropriate symbiosis: the art community, now based in the post-industrial area of West Chelsea, benefits from new foot traffic brought by the High Line, while the High Line, of course, needs money to continue renovations and maintain the park for public use. With the chance to pick up some art at auction prices, patrons also may find this a winning scenario.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

No Responses to “Gallery Hopping with The New Yorker: A Designers Perspective on Passport to the Arts”

Post a Comment