BARD GRADUATE CENTER RECEIVES NEA ART WORKS GRANT TO SUPPORT SPRING 2016 EXHIBITION
New York, New York, December 15, 2015 —On December 8, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced grants totaling more than $27.6 million in its first funding round of fiscal year 2016, including an Art Works award of $30,000 to Bard Graduate Center to support the spring 2016 exhibition Artek and the Aaltos: Creating a Modern World.
NEA Chairman Jane Chu said, “The arts are part of our everyday lives— no matter who you are or where you live— they have the power to transform individuals, spark economic vibrancy in communities, and transcend the boundaries across diverse sectors of society. Supporting projects such as Bard Graduate Center’s offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.”
“I am delighted that the National Endowment for the Arts has recognized the outstanding quality and importance of this long overdue and important new perspective on Alvar Aalto and Aino Marsio-Aalto,” said Bard Graduate Center Director and Founder Dr. Susan Weber. “It reinforces our commitment to presenting ambitious exhibitions that offer new research presented at the highest level of scholarship.”
Artek and the Aaltos: Creating a Modern World will open in Bard Graduate Center Gallery, New York City, on April 22 and run through September 25, 2016. It will be the first exhibition in the United States to examine the pioneering Finnish design company Artek, still an active enterprise since its inception in 1935, and their principal architects, Alvar Aalto (1898–1976) and Aino Marsio-Aalto (1894–1949), together. Approximately 150 works will be featured—many never before exhibited—including architectural drawings, sketches for interiors and furniture, paintings, photography, furniture, glassware, lighting, and textiles from both public repositories and private collections. Artek and the Aaltos: Creating a Modern World is curated by Bard Graduate Center Gallery Director Nina Stritzler-Levine, a recognized scholar of modern and contemporary design, and Juhani Pallasmaa, a practicing architect and leading authority on modern and contemporary architecture.
