At MAD’s Gala, Sports Met Florals and Glamour Met Fun

Sports met florals, and glamour met fun at Museum of Arts and Design’s MAD Gala on Monday. The museum on Columbus Circle boasts an eclectic program encompassing the most extraordinary crafts, furniture, fashions, jewelry, ceramics, cinema, art, and toys (a-hem Barbie!), but also some more off-beat topics deeply rooted within design like musicians, Taylor Swift in 2024 and David Bowie in 2011, and they have even had a fellowship for nightlife practitioners. The exhibitions on view during this year’s benefit gala reflected the museum’s broad approach to human creativity—from Nike: Form Follows Motion, a retrospective of the major sports brand, to Jessica Lichtenstein: Rewilding, where the multi.disciplinary artist had created tableaux and tondos of digitally rendered female nudes are placed within forests, ruins, and flowering canopies. Furniture, light fixtures, and ceramics were presented in John Procario: Freeforms and Alice Riehl’s Porcelain Florilegium both artists who Todd Merrill will feature at this week’s Salon Art and Design. OUT of the Jewelry Box presents highlights from the museum’s jewelry collection. For those who didnät attend the gala, the museum will have their monthly pay what you wish day this Wednesday.

Happenings on each floor during the evening reflected the museum’s dedication to making and their staff’s skill in throwing a design- and craft-forward party. The theme was 70’s sporty and there was Jell-o Cake which heightened the screw-bally ambiance; cleverly avant-garde but with an eye to the past. On the sixth floor, in the MAD Artist Studios, Esther Jihye Cho, one of the artists in residence, collected secrets from guests. She transcribes secrets scribbled in bathroom stalls or that she collects in person, or online onto strips of Hanji, a Korean paper crafted from the inner bark of the mulberry tree, which she then weaves into sculptures in a shape she finds representative of its content. Cho uses a traditional weaving technique historically used to transform books, manuscripts, and documents into other functional objects like baskets or quills. The work speaks beautifully to reuse, hiding, and new ways to sustain craft traditions. Guests at the party were the opposite of hidden; they went all out. Evan Hirsch, an inventive designer working with upcycling, wore one of his own creations, as did MAD’s associate director of donors relations Carson Woś. Patricia M. Oleszko wore an outrageously large, sculptural, multi-coloured hat. And, perhaps to honor a vitrine with Nike’s NBA jerseys, or simply going all in with the sports theme, curator Souleo wore a basketball inspired headpiece.

It was stylist Coco Paul Henriot’s first time at the gala, she I loved how welcoming and interesting guests were. She also noted that the museum’s program inspires her professionally: “The emphasis on the body and form across so many of the works offer new perspectives on the work I do with clients and in editorial,” she wrote to Cultbytes. Seeing the Comme des Garçons x Nike cleat heels made her regret not buying them when she had the chance. For those interested in the museum’s focus, the Luminaries offers year-round access and tailored events where creatives and aficionados come together around craft and art. Woś commented: “We have many active Luminaries that collect and work with craft, art, design, and fashion.” She has spearheaded a partnership initiative with young patron groups across the city to create what she calls “a dynamic ecosystem across the arts” and given MAD’s track record of good parties it would is a good group to join.

Over the past 70 years the museum has moved from 53rd Street to Columbus Circle and switched names from American Craft Museum to the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, to the Museum of Arts and Design, MAD for short, all the while helping the New York public expand their understanding of what art and design is, what people are making. They serve as a beacon of support for practising artists in the city through their residency program, awards, jewelry fair, and their shop where they sell jewelry, arts, and design from makers around the country. They are a gem, as Manhattan Borough President, Brad Hoylam-Sigal, echoed, “MAD has evolved into a leading organization, dedicated to exploring the intersection of art, craft, and design,” he announced during remarks over a buffet dinner with views over Columbus Circle and central park at Roberts. He has committed $50 million to arts and cultural institutions that serve New York City. Tim Rodgers, MAD’s director, continued: “At MAD, you should expect the unexpected. We’re compelled to think outside of the box, to explore the new and the unusual.”

Consider becoming a member or joining the MAD Luminaries. Those who join during the museum’s Pay-What-You-Wish first Wednesdays of the month, 5-8PM, receive one month free. 2 Columbus Circle New York, NY 10019.

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Caroline Blackman. Photographed by Danté Crichlow/BFA.com.