Helen Toomer is the director of Photofairs New York, which held its inaugural edition at the Javits Center this past September. The mission is to “present the state-of-the-art view of visual culture, … to explore the diverse and rapidly evolving landscape of image-making, from intersections with digital art and film, to the medium’s next frontiers, … including virtual reality, augmented reality, and AI-driven art.” In this interview, Helen talks about her excitement for a photo fair that exists in the space between the traditional archetype of photo exhibitions and the typical a ..read more

In this episode, Linnea Larsdotter Mikkelä, creative director and president of NIFF, Nordic International Film Festival, takes us on an inspiring walk-through of this year’s festival program. We talk about the identity of Nordic filmmaking, and why the 2022 Cannes Film Festival was the busiest festival ever for Nordic filmmakers, among them Ruben Östlund, who won his second Palme d’Or with Triangle of Sadness, Tarik Saleh with Cairo-set Boy From Heaven, and Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider, the story of an Iranian serial killer. The vision behind NIFF, is to buil ..read more

Paola Antonelli is the Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, where she also serves as the founding Director of Research and Development. She has been described as "one of the 25 most incisive design visionaries in the world" by TIME magazine. In this interview Paola talks about her vision of what design is. She believes that design touches every aspect of society, and that design has a civic responsibility towards humanity and the planet. “Design is the enzyme that makes progress happen”. Her biggest ambition is to enhance people ..read more

Since its inception in 1977, Public Art Fund has presented more than 500 artists' exhibitions and projects at sites throughout New York City.  In this episode, Susan K. Freedman, the president of Public Art Fund, presents current exhibitions including Nicholas Galanin’s impressive new sculpture “In Every Language There Is Land/En cada lengua hay una Tierra” at Brooklyn Bridge Park, art installations at La Guardia Airport Terminal B by Jeppe Hein. Sabine Hornig, Laura Owens and Sarah Sze, at Newark Liberty International Airport Terminal A b ..read more

As you travel through the New York Subway system, you may not know it, but you are traveling through one of the largest and most diverse collections of public art in the world. In this episode, Sandra Bloodworth, the director of MTA Art & Design, takes us on a tour of the new Grand Central Madison Terminal, the new commuter rail terminal for the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) that sits beneath the Grand Central Terminal. We visit the stunning glass mosaic by Yayoi Kusama from the “My Eternal Soul” series, called A Message of Love Directly from My Heart unto the Universe, and the commissioned ..read more

Greg Kwiat, whose “thinking is as clear as the diamonds he’s selling” is the CEO of Kwiat, a four-generation family company founded in 1907. In this interview we talk about what it was like growing up in a diamond family, the history of the diamond industry, De Beers dominating role, and the legendary advertising campaign “A Diamond is Forever” to stimulate demand in the 1950s and how Miuccia Prada, Nicole Kidman and Fred Leighton became pioneers in displaying beautiful vintage jewelry on the red carpet at the Oscars. Greg also gives us an insightful guide about the basic knowledge you need to ..read more

Evan Snyderman and Zesty Meyers, owners, and co-founders of the R & Company Gallery, have managed to transform their passion for design into one of the world's finest design galleries. With an obsession for seeking deeper beauty of design objects, and a philosophy based on teamwork, collaboration, and a cross-disciplinary approach, they have defined a full-blown global trade called Collectible Design. In this interview we talk about their creative, and entrepreneurial journey from the B Team, a performance-based glass-artist collaborative group, via the Wild West of the Chelsea Flee m ..read more

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is an award-winning American geographer and writer. In his latest book “Names of New York”, he traces the ways in which native Lenape, Dutch settlers, British invaders, and successive waves of immigrants, have left their marks on the city’s map. In this interview, we talk about how several places in New York got their names: Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bowery, Greenwich Village, Spuyten Duyvil, Lackawanna, Boerum Hill, Gramercy Park, Rockaway, to mention a few. We talk about how place matters to us as human beings and how it shapes our believes about who we are. We also ..read more

Richard Saul Wurman is one of the most influential American architects and graphic designers of our time. He created the TED Conference, most popularly known as the TedTalks series. Early in his career, he coined the term “Information Architecture”, which defined a new era and addressed design solution for communicating rising amounts of data. Richard is driven by a singular passion in his life: making information understandable for both himself and others.  In this interview, he discusses being in the business of what he calls "the n ..read more

Bella Neyman and JB Jones are the co-founders of NYC Jewelry Week, an annual event dedicated to promoting and celebrating the world of jewelry, from the window shopper to the avid collector. NYC Jewelry Week is about creating an intimate emotional connection with jewelry; giving consumers a way to get to know artists, learn the history and explore all the stories that bring unique pieces to life.  This year’s event is free and open to the public and will take place November 15-21, under the theme “The Power of Jewelry.” The power to seduce, inspire, and communicate. No ..read more