If you’re looking for a great new way to see the Big Apple, jump on the NYCxDESIGN website and follow your passions as New York City’s annual citywide celebration of design kicks off today Friday, May 8, and runs to Tuesday, May 19.
By showcasing New York City’s diverse design community and its contributions to the fabric and economy of the five boroughs at more than 300 events in 12 days, visitors and natives will find themselves in surprising venues and pop-up lounges from Randall Island Park, Wave Hill in the Bronx, to Freshkills Park in Staten Island or Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
“A century after the Garment industry brought a generation of New Yorkers into the middle class, events like NYCxDESIGN help showcase how New York City remains the global capital of design,” said Kyle Kimball, President of NYCEDC, at the event's press presentation. “With over 40,000 practicing designers, more than almost any other city in the world, New York City is proving that design thinking encourages equitable neighborhood development where form enables function, and where innovation can generate true social good.”
Home to 3,900-plus design firms and 10 prominent design and architecture schools, New York City is one of the world’s design capitals. The design sector has a positive impact on NYC’s economy. Employees in the sector earn an average wage of $86k, and 60% of those employed in the sector earn at least $50k a year—indicating a strong source of middle-income wages and positive opportunities for income mobility. In addition, design employment increased 31% between 2003 and 2013, double the citywide employment growth of 15% over the same period.
New this year, ICFF is offering international design week organizations complimentary exhibition space in an effort to expand the international reach of NYCxDESIGN. Not all the talent is homegrown as the event is increasingly showing up on international design calendars too:
Of the five boroughs, Brooklyn is likely the most ambitious in making its mark this year with an all-new, three-day exhibition of design creativity making it the first design show to officially kick off NYCxDESIGN — getting things started in what Brooklyn Chamber President and CEO Carlo A. Scissura “the hippest borough.”
BKLYN DESIGNS, the internationally-renowned, juried exhibition of contemporary furniture, lighting, accessories and art from Brooklyn, features exhibitors hailing from design and manufacturing hubs across Brooklyn, including Greenpoint, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Bushwick, Industry City, Williamsburg, Red Hook, Dumbo and beyond.
The show features numerous pop-up lounges and site-specific installations including: a temporary cinema created by the Architecture & Design Film Festival with films focused on Brooklyn design and architecture; a special lounge for portfolio reviews and book signings created byAmerican Design Club and Token; a play area for kids featuring theImagination Playground, designed by Rockwell Group; a series of rotating food trucks, organized by FoodToEat; bars presented by Brooklyn Wineryand Threes Brewing; and award programs including the Inhabitat Green Design Awards; ASID Best Of Awards and IFDA Selects.
Another exciting highlight of BKLYN DESIGNS will be the BKLYN BUYS marketplace, where attendees can shop for beautifully-crafted accessories and design objects made or designed in Brooklyn
“With the borough's most talented and creative artists signed up, and amazing new attractions like BKLYN BUYS, BKLYN DESIGNS is sure to be a show the design world will be talking about for a very long time,” Scissura adds.
Highlights of the citywide 12-day affair include:
Collective Design Fair, celebrates design innovation and thinking from the start of the 20th century to today. The annual fair features New York’s most exciting voices as well as established and emerging galleries from across the world’s creative capitals, including Copenhagen, Milan, Paris, and Stockholm, among others.
May 13-17 at Skylight Clarkson Square in Manhattan.
Frieze New York, one of the world’s leading contemporary art fairs, bringing together over 190 of the most exciting galleries working today. Galleries from over 30 countries will present the best of contemporary art today, alongside our feature sections, Frame and Focus, dedicated to emerging artists and younger galleries.
May 14-17, Randall’s Island Park.
Edison Price Lighting Gallery Opening, The Gallery exhibits Edison Price Lighting’s newest track, recessed, and surface-mounted downlights, wallwashers, and accent lights. Eat, drink, view art, and chat with local artists and members of the lighting design community. Thursday,
May 14th, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Edison Price Lighting Gallery, Long Island City, Queens.
WantedDesign Brooklyn, must see design destination during NYCxDESIGN. The public is invited to discover large-scale and multi-disciplinary design installations. May 9-19 at Industry City, Sunset Park.
Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft and Design, Midcentury and Today, featuring more than 100 works, Pathmakers focuses on a core cadre of women—including Ruth Asawa, Edith Heath, Sheila Hicks, Karen Karnes, Dorothy Liebes, Alice Kagawa Parrott, Toshiko Takaezu, Lenore Tawney, and Eva Zeisel—who had impact and influence as designers, artists, and teachers, using materials such as clay, fiber, and metals in innovative ways.
Through Setpember 27, at Museum of Arts and Design, Manhattan.
Most NYCxDESIGN events are free to enter.
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