Archive for August, 2011
Art San Diego aims to be West Coast’s top contemporary art fair
By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt
Labor Day weekend is not just the end of summer. It’s time for art-lovers of all ages to celebrate the arts at a four-day extravaganza called Art San Diego. Back in 1970, a trio of Swiss gallerists started Art Basel, an annual international art fair that came to be known as “the Olympics of the art world.” In 2002, Miami jumped in with its own version, drawing more than 60,000 visitors last year. In 2009, two Del Martians, Ann Berchtold and Julie Schraeger, decided to put our region on the art map by creating Art San Diego. Their goal: to become the No. 1 contemporary art fair on the West Coast.
Berchtold has some 15 years of experience in what she calls “cultural philanthropy,” which includes the founding committee of San Diego Visual Artists Network, founding a children’s program called Inspire Art Kids, directing the L Street Gallery at the Omni Hotel, and co-creating the San Diego Art Prize. Schraeger comes from a corporate background, with development and marketing skills.
“We’re a good team,” Berchtold said. “I’m kind of the creative one, she’s the operational. We want to turn San Diego into a mecca for cultural tourism. Our model is Comic-Con, for a different demographic.”
In 2009, they staged their inaugural event at the Grand Del Mar. Last year, they moved to the Hilton Bayfront, attracting 6,000 attendees. This year, they’re back at the Hilton, with more than 50 galleries participating, from cities like Montreal, New York, Buenos Aires, Berlin and Shanghai, side by side with La Jolla notables Joseph Bellows and Mark Quint.
Trans-border architect Giacomo Castagnola, whose “CUBO: MediaWomb” is shown here, will have his work on display at the NAFTA furniture exhibit. Germen Estudio
Besides all the international exhibits, the Fair offers themed Art Labs featuring a range of regional artists showing light sculpture, video, music and performance art at various locations, and a host of activities for children, including mask- and puppet-making, a giant puppet parade and a mass picnic on “San Diego’s largest picnic blanket.”
Look for works by UCSD faculty members Ruben Ortiz-Torres and Jay S. Johnson, winners of this year’s Art Prize, awarded by San Diego Visual Arts Network (SDVAN) to “encourage dialogue, reflection and social interaction about San Diego’s artistic and cultural life.” And don’t miss the inventive furniture design from Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., including a selection of pieces by SDSU students and alumni.
“The first year of the fair was marvelous, the second was more international — very dynamic, with lots going on, and a lot of great art — and I think this year will be just as terrific,” said Robin Lipman, Membership Chair of the Contemporary Arts Committee of The San Diego Museum of Art, which (along with the Museum of Contemporary Art and other area museums) is one of ASD’s local partners.
With partners like these, and sponsors like UBS (a global wealth-management firm with offices in La Jolla), the Fair is well on its way. As Ann Berchtold pointed out: “It took Art Miami four years to build their attendance; now they bring in a half-billion dollars in Fair-related revenues to the city. We’re only in year number three.”
For something really special, join the VIPs for a splashy opening night reception and after-pool-party. And if you want to turn your Fair-going into a Labor Day weekend staycation, the Hilton is offering discounted Art Fair rates on rooms, with VIP event tickets included.
If you go
What: Art San Diego 2011: Contemporary Art Fair
When: From Noon, Sept 1-4
Tickets: $15-$75, free events, too
Where: Hilton San Diego Bayfront; other locations
Contact: (858) 254-3031
Hotel reservations: (619) 564-3344
Related posts:
- MACASD in La Jolla will host discussion on local artist’s work
- Colosseum Arts opening to benefit Challenged Athletes Foundation
- La Jolla Art Association hosts fall events
- Timothy Horn brings inventive art to Lux
- Group grants funds for arts project
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Dryer fire leaves 11 homeless (with video)
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MORNING JOURNAL/ANNA NORRIS
Fire fighters begin rolling up hoses at 48501 North Ridge Road in Amherst Township yesterday after the dryer overheated and caught fire spreading to the rest of the house. Four people who were home when the fire started made it out safely.
AMHERST TOWNSHIP — Cathy Ellis clutched her 11-year-old daughter in her arms yesterday as she watched her home for the past six years burn to the ground. The mother of nine and her family safely escaped the blaze at their 48501 N. Ridge Road, Amherst Township, home.
The two-story home, nestled among trees and near other homes, caught fire around 7:30 a.m. when a dryer started smoldering, Ellis said. Dry lint apparently caused the dryer to overheat, which started a fire, she said. Anthony Ellis, her husband, tried putting out the fire with an extinguisher, but another fire started soon after and engulfed the home.
“Went through two extinguishers and just couldn’t get it … Thirty minutes and it was done,” said 20-year-old Jake Ellis, Anthony and Cathy’s son who lives in the home.
The dryer was on the first floor and in the center of the house, Jake Ellis said.
The Amherst Fire Department, assisted by other departments, spent several hours getting the fire under control. Thick smoke and fumes filled the air and the studs in the wall were visible from the street. Fire crews also cut square openings in the roof in order to vent the smoke.
Amherst fire officials could not give details yesterday and did not return calls seeking comment.
Cathy and Jake Ellis said when the fire started spreading to other rooms, Anthony Ellis yelled for everyone to escape the home. Jake Ellis said he ran upstairs and carried his special needs 11-year-old sister, who is paralyzed, to safety. Jake Ellis said his 8-year-old brother was the one who alerted them to the fire. Anthony and Cathy Ellis have nine kids living in the house, ranging from ages 4 to 20.
“I honestly think if it wasn’t for him, it could have been a lot worse,” Jake Ellis said of his little brother.
While none of the Ellis family were injured in the fire, the family cat, Sam, might not have escaped the fire. Cathy Ellis said the family has two cats and a dog and one cat might have escaped, but 14-year-old Sam most likely stayed inside the home.
“It went fast. We got everybody out and the dog. But we couldn’t find the cats. We have two cats. I think the one went out the back, but they don’t know about (Sam) … I don’t know if he made it,” Cathy Ellis sobbed.
Cathy Ellis said the family lost all their possessions — photos, mementos, clothes and furniture.
“I have lost all my home,” she said, tears streaming down her face.
Jake Ellis said while he lost his game systems and his guitar, those things could be replaced.
“I managed to make it out with my Michael Jackson ‘Beat It’ jacket,” he said with a smile.
“I am just glad everybody got out safely,” he added.
“I think the hardest part was losing the cat. I mean, because he was my best friend. I know it’s stupid because he was a cat but he really was my best friend,” Jake Ellis also said.
The Lorain County Chapter of The American Red Cross is assisting the family. Art Mead Sr., chairman of disaster services, said the family has been set up in a motel and was given meals, clothing and assistance with medication.
- Return to Paging Mode
Just don’t say ‘Ikea’ at Netanya’s new furniture giant
The preliminary tour at Kika – the international furniture and home design chain opening next week in Netanya – took an hour and a half. It was forbidden to utter one word: Ikea. Like Lord Voldemort in “Harry Potter,” the scariest enemy of all. No one dares to utter the name and talk of “the one whose name must not be spoken.”
Avi Avraham, the VP for trade and purchase, spoke of the building’s unique structure with an impressive rotunda (like at the Guggenheim museum ) in the center. Avraham pointed out how everything is spread before the customer and arranged so someone standing in the middle of the store can see all the products in every part of it. “We are a very friendly family store,” he said. “From everywhere you can get to everywhere else.”
The Kika store in Netanya.
Photo by: Alon Ron
Elit Ben Basat Nuriel, the marketing director, added: “Because we are in a transparent building you can get to exactly where you want to be. You don’t need to follow any path to get to the department you want.”
Gal Kremer, the chief commercial designer, summed up: “There is no maze here; there is always full transparency.” A quarter of an hour after the start of the tour, I gathered my courage and asked: Could I say “Ikea.”
“We don’t talk about Ikea at all,” replied Avraham. “Ikea is a worthy store in the State of Israel and I hope you have already formed the impression that here is an endless variety of products for every part of the population, which I am not sure can be said about the variety there is at other places.”
Harry Potter and his friends realized after a while that in order to fight evil it is necessary to be able to speak its name. When Kemer talked about Kika’s display rooms, he said: “The display room method is not like at the place you mentioned before, because it shows a collection. At the place you mentioned before, they use what there is and they build a life situation, something functional. Here it’s still functional,” he said, pointing to one of the rooms. “It’s clear there’s a room here, that is a living room, and for us this is a place to give a total look to the collection. There is an international look, an urban-modern look, a conservative and up-to-date look, a classic-contemporary look, a country-romantic look and a colonial-traditional look.”
A lot of everything
The Kika store in Netanya.
Photo by: Alon Ron
Indeed Kika’s variety of possibilities is one of the largest, if not the largest, under a single roof in the State of Israel. That should suit Israelis, who like a lot of everything. Here’s a glance at the numbers: The total store area is 27,000 square meters, including parking. The commercial floor space is 18,000 square meters spread over four stories. On the ground floor are accessories, lighting and a cafe. The first floor is devoted to the public spaces in the home – living rooms and kitchens; the second floor is devoted to private areas – bedrooms, rooms for teens, offices and bathrooms; and the top floor is the world of babies and children’s rooms and another cafe and a Gymboree for kids to play in.
The flagship store in Netanya will apparently be joined by a store at Hutzot Hamifratz in the Haifa area, with construction starting in about three months. It’s slated to open in 2013.
Kika is a large store in the European style – calm, not gaudy, pleasant. Its more than 25,000 products include 70 seating suites for the living room, about 30 kitchens, 60 dining sets, more than 100 kinds of chairs, 42 kinds of bathroom cabinets, 25 towel sets, more than 30 kinds of desks, 50 desk chairs, 30 different possibilities for children’s rooms and 1,270 square meters of toys, babies’ rooms and strollers.
Kika is coming to Netanya 10 years after the Swedish furniture giant Ikea landed there. It is an Austrian chain, one of the five largest furniture and home design stores in Europe. The first Kika store opened in 1973. Today, the chain’s 72 stores can be found in eight countries on the Continent. Its annual sales volume tops 1.2 billion euros, and it employs more than 8,200 workers.
Ikea, for the sake of comparison, was founded in 1953 and now has 323 stores around the world. Kika offers a wider range of products and prices so shoppers could range from young people on a budget to a wealthier clientele. The products are arranged by price level – low, middling and high, parallel to the quality – good, better and best.
Another difference is in the sales method: Thirty percent of the furniture mix at Kika in Israel will be based on the “cash and carry” method and 70 percent will be based on ordering customized items, which will be supplied to the customer within a reasonable time, as is customary in the Israeli furniture world.
Some of Kika’s furniture.
Photo by: Alon Ron
Different aesthetic
The main difference is in style. In the Kika furniture catalogue it is possible to find everything expected of a traditional European furniture maker – furniture items made mostly of wood in clean and classical lines. Compared to Ikea, the design looks a bit more sophisticated and ornate, and the aesthetic seems a bit overblown to those accustomed to Scandanavian minimalism. There is also extensive use of colors, mainly in the accessories but also in the more basic furniture items, the wallpapers, the bed linens and the like.
Ben Basat Nuriel explains: “We are not appealing to a single, specific target audience but rather to a tremendous variety of audiences.” So, he adds, “You can find a towel in our store at prices ranging from NIS 5 to NIS 300 and bed linens ranging from NIS 150 to NIS 4,000.”
The desire to please everyone shows in the focus on families and children and adaptations here. “In Austria, tables that expand for hospitality constitute 5 to 10 percent of the display and in Israel they are 50 percent,” says Ben Basat Nuriel. “The whole area of disposable hospitality items and birthday party accessories – we’ve developed that department and it’s unique to us.”
Avraham beams over the variety of baby carriages. “We have more than 40 strollers and 40 car seats in the display. We offer all the options in one place.”
“This department is three times larger than the parallel departments in Europe,” adds Ben Basat Nuriel. However, it’s hard to understand how a Monopoly set or a baby carriage is connected to a design and furniture chain, while the Kika people don’t want the definition of a department store, even if anyone who has visited a European department store would see this as a compliment.
What does a baby carriage or board games have to do with interior decor?
“The entire world of content connected to babies, children and the home is here, and games and toys give added value to this world. This is a store for furniture and home accessories that shows both design and a lifestyle.”
But what does that have to do with strollers?
“It’s something that you need.”
But I also need an iPad, glasses and a watch. I need a lot of things.
“This is part of comprehensive solution we offer for every stage in life. In order to give everything in one place we offer you the purchase of the whole birth package in one place. We want to give you the possibility of not running around from place to place. We aren’t an electrical appliance store either, but when you buy a kitchen from us, it comes with all the appliances. Why? Precisely from the same way of looking at things. This is one of our messages.”
Can’t the abundance deter?
Avraham: “I am giving you the unmediated possibility of touching everything. Of seeing all the kinds of lighting, faucets, extras, textures of the doors, the finishes….”
There’s something very European here. What is suited to the Israeli audience? Ben Basat Nuriel: “We Israelis love to see what is happening abroad, we love to get up to date and yes, we want to give something different here. This isn’t just another chain that sells furniture or accessories on some platform that repeats itself. This is a chain with a European flavor that’s coming to Israel.”
What will be considered success?
“Being the customers’ preferred chain when it comes to decorating his home. When you are before a renovation or a move, when the children are going into first grade, the first thing you will do is get in the car and come to Kika and get up to date on what’s new.”
At that other, unmentionable, place a visit is not complete without stopping in the cafeteria for Swedish meatballs or a sausage in a roll. What is the flagship dish at Kika?
“Strudel,” smiles Avraham. “What else could it be?”
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Tomorrow’s Events and Sales: Housing Works ‘Best Of’ Sales Begin; Discounts on …
SALES
STARTING TOMORROW
• Shop discounted fashion, furniture, and artwork at Housing Works’ “Best Of” shopping events. See schedule, locations, and hours here.
• Browse jewelry from designer Carol Marie’s fall 2010 and spring 2011 collections at up to 60 percent off. Through 8/31. Seamless Showroom,
524 Broadway #401, nr. Prince St.; 9:30–7
• Browse a private collection of vintage womenswear and accessories at the La Vie Ann Rose Vintage Sale in the Harbor Room at the Soho Grand Hotel, with over 1,000 items including pieces by Diane Von Furstenberg and Cacharel. (Fifties chiffon cocktail/party dresses from $125, fifties Trifoli broches from $35.) Soho Grand Hotel, 310 W. Broadway, nr. Grand St.; 11–8.
ONGOING
• Select merchandise from the spring 2011 collection is up to 50 percent off at Cynthia Rowley. 376 Bleecker St., nr. Perry St. (212-242-0847); M–W (10–8), Th–F (10–9), S (11–9), Su (11–8).
• New and classic titles are up to 90 percent off at the powerHouse Books annual summer skid sale. Fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books are $2, $5, and $10 apiece. 37 Main St., nr. Water St. (212-604-9074); Su–W (10–7), Th–S (10–8).
Retail veteran Hayes joins Weekends Only
Furniture Today Staff — Furniture Today, August 29, 2011
Hayes
ST. LOUIS — Weekends Only Furniture Outlet has hired Derrick Hayes as district manager, with responsibility for store leadership and directing the day-today activities of store managers at the Top 100 company.
Hayes most recently was with Cost Plus World Market out of St. Paul, Minn., where he spent seven years as district manager. Before that he was with retailer Best Buy for 16 years in various roles including regional operations manager.
“I am excited to have someone on board … with Derrick’s experience and background,” said Lane Hamm, Weekends Only chief financial officer and director of stores. “His time at Best Buy and Cost Plus adds a great deal of strength to our team as we continue on our journey to become a Top 50 furniture retailer.”
The district manager position has been vacant for about a year, with Hamm filling in while the retailer was recruiting.
With five St. Louis-area stores, Weekends Only is No. 90 on Furniture/Today’s Top 100 with estimated furniture, bedding and accessories sales last year of $47.9 million.
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Savvy Spaces wins good early reviews
Clint Engel — Furniture Today, August 29, 2011
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Savvy Spaces, the first multi-line store by Ashley Furniture HomeStores licensee Broad River Furniture, opened to some solid consumer reviews earlier this summer.
The 36,000-square-foot showroom in the Charlotte, N.C., suburb of Pineville sits next door to the retailer’s top performing Home- Store, on a furniture row and in a former Boyles location.
The 36,000-square-foot Savvy Spaces in Charlotte, N.C.’s Pineville suburb is Broad River Furniture’s first multi-line store, offering a step-up assortment from its network of Ashley Furniture HomeStores.
Just inside the entrance of the new Savvy Spaces, the retailer pairs a one-of-kind reclaimed wood server ($979) from Jaipur Home with a Hooker dining room group with distressed country flair.
Its mix of home furnishings is designed largely to be a step up from Ashley prices without being high-end, officials said. Savvy Spaces targets a more affluent consumer with goods from sources including Jaipur
Home, Fairmont Designs, Hooker, Bernhardt and Aspenhome.
Other key suppliers include Samuel Lawrence, Leggett Platt, Franklin, Legacy Classic, Bradington-Young, Pulaski, A.R.T., Corinthian, Jackson/Catnapper, Steve Silver, New Classics, USA Premium Leather and Sealy, Stearns Foster and Tempur-Pedic in bedding.
The store soft opened July 1, but Broad River didn’t begin its advertising push until Aug. 4.
“Customers have been saying it’s unique, beautiful, nothing like it in the market,” said John McGaha, general sales manager.
Throughout the store, the retailer has played up the Savvy name – Savvy Sleep, Savvy Motion, Savvy Kids, Savvy Service – wanting to reinforce the perception that the consumer is savvy for shopping there and that the retailer is a savvy buyer. The store’s tagline is “Stylish furniture, smart choice.”
A Fairmont Designs display invites consumers to create their own sectional with modular pieces and a choice of 36 upholstery covers and 32 pillow options, with delivery within about 30 days from Fairmont’s Hickory, N.C., plant.
A Bradington-Young leather sectional, shown in what the retailer calls a “Savvy Spaces green” ($3,699), is displayed with tables from Bernhardt. The two-piece sectional also can be used as a sofa with an armless loveseat.
“It’s lack of confidence that keeps people from pulling the trigger” in home furnishings stores, said Jonathan Ishee, a partner with Charlie Malouf in Broad River, a Charlotte-based Top 100 company. “Even down to our name, we want to give people that feeling of confidence.”
Ishee and Malouf won’t disclose their investment in the new store or projected sales for the showroom, but they do project total furniture, bedding and accessories sales for all the Broad River-owned stores of $65 million this year, up from an estimated $50.7 million in 2010. And with additional expansion, they are looking for $75 million to $85 million in 2012.
Broad River will open its 13th Ashley Furniture HomeStore in Fayetteville, N.C., Sept. 1 and plans to roll into the Raleigh, N.C., market with the dedicated store concept later. It currently operates 12 HomeStores in the Carolinas and Augusta, Ga.
The owners say Savvy Spaces offers an assortment of traditional to contemporary furniture and home accents that consumers are “not going to see across the street.”
A tagging system, explained on display towers in the store, breaks down goods into three types: “select,” or core goods; “one-of-a-kind” items, with unique finishes or wood grain patterns, for instance, where no two pieces are exactly alike (and are sold off the floor); and “showroom stock,” such as possible closeouts or other goods that also get pulled and delivered from the floor.
“Customers have loved the shopping experience,” Malouf said.
“We’ll continue to update it, tweak it, keep it fresh,” he said, adding, “I feel confident as we begin to advertise the brand, sales to go in the direction we want to see them go in. We’ve been very pleased so far.”
Savvy Spaces hosts industry guests at store opening
Sandy Rose, left, Fairmont Designs and Jaipur Home, and Brooke Harrington, Broad River Furniture and Savvy Spaces, Charlotte, N.C.
Ty Coleman, left, and Roxanne Stevens, Sealy; Charlie Malouf and Jonathan Ishee, Broad River Furniture and Savvy Spaces, Charlotte, N.C.; and Scott Warlick, Sealy.
Patrick Tully, left, Rowe Furniture; John McGaha, Savvy Spaces, Charlotte, N.C.; and Ben Rush, Aspenhome.
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