new york museum

Conservation International's Seas of Hope Bash

Filed under: Apparel, Events, Charity, Green, Big Givers

As BP's latest stumble over stopping the flow of upwards of 200,000 gallons of oil into our oceans reminds us, we don't need an excuse to start protecting our marine ecosystem now. While oil officials volleyed the blame back and forth, in another corner of the world, at New York's Museum of Natural History, Conversation International offered a new kind of hope, this past Thursday at their Seas of Hope Celebration gala.

Under the infamous blue whale hanging from the Museum's ceiling, New York revelers pooled together to offer a new kind of solution, donating toward Conservation International's mission of empowering local communities to care for nature and humanity. After an address from JP MorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon on the role of finance in sustainable growth, and an overwhelmingly successful fundraising appeal for CI's Protect an Acre program, guests retreated to the gallery halls for an after party sponsored by Havaianas.

The quintessential Brazilian brand teamed up with CI to protect the country's Albrolhos region, an area on the South Atlantic that contains some of the world's richest coral reefs. Albrolhos serves as breeding ground to the Southern humpback whale population, with nearly 10,000 members, and also represents several species of corals, mollusks and fish that are exclusive to the area.

Gallery: Conservation International and Havaiana's Seas of Hope Celebration

Tags: conservation, Conservation International, coral, havaianas, museum of natural history, new york museum, new york museums, ocean

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Fur, Feathers, Bugs and Butterflies at MAD

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

If the Museum of Arts and Design's new show had a soundtrack, it would be Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive." As Jovi says and MAD's show tells, "Every day it seems we're wastin' away." Yet in the fascinating "Dead or Alive" show at MAD nothing -not fur, feathers, bones, insects, shell - goes to waste. In fact, 37 international artists whose work is on view have transformed once-living material into "lively" sculpture and installations.

Rather than morbid, the work is mysterious, highly personal, and each in its own way comments on the human condition and the transcendence of life, whether man or beast. One of the most remarkable installations is Keith W. Bentley's Cauda Equina,
made up of 1.4 million hand-knotted horse hairs mounted on fabric and applied to a horse mannequin. The result is a shaggy pony that resembles a huge sheep dog in mourning. Bentley is a self-trained artist who is passionate about animals. On learning that more than 250 horses were going to be slaughtered in processing plants, the artist obtained all the hair from the horses' manes and tails. He twisted and hand-knotted them, a painstaking process that took 12 years. He then created what is, in effect, a horse-hair blanket that he placed over the pony form to create the spooky installation. The idea of covering the pony's head with a flowing veil of horse hair evokes the Victorian custom of mourning when women covered their faces with a veil.

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Tags: art installation, craft, damien hirst, design, museum of art and design, Museum of Arts and Design, new york city, new york museum, shen shaomin

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