Press Room

New York, NY (July 19, 2009)

MAD, in partnership with Etsy, opens its Studios every Thursday night in August and invites visitors to join artists for its hands-on workshops, DIY Thursdays at MAD. Artists and designers will lead participants in a different project each week, incorporating materials and techniques on view in MAD's exhibitions. The series starts on Thursday, August 6 with a workshop lead by artist Sabrina Gschwandtner.

The Museum's new pop-up wine bar, MADCrush, combines the best of food, design, and wine. Created in collaboration with designer Stephanie Goto and Crush Wines & Spirits, the bar will be open every Thursday evening through the end of August, from 5:00 until 10:30 pm. A roster of New York's best chefs will provide a menu of light cuisine, accompanied by a selection of fine wines curated by Crush.

In collaboration with the Museum of Moving Images, MAD continues French New Wave Essentials, a film series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the French New Wave movie era. The best and most influential films will be presented in MAD's theater each Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM through August 30, 2009. Films shown include: Jules and Jim by François Truffaut, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy; Alphaville and A Woman Is a Woman by Jean-Luc Godard; Last Year at Marienbad by Alain Resnais, and many more.

MAD's Studio Sundays, hands-on workshops for children and their parents, include this month: Narrative in Art, a workshop that explores the stories behind art, on August 2; and Stories and Stitches, a workshop that invites visitors to 'spin a story' using fabric and thread, on August 9, 2009.

For more information on MAD's public programs in August, see schedule below. The Museum of Arts and Design is located at 2 Columbus Circle. For information, contact 212.299.7790 or log on to www.madmuseum.org. All programs are subject to change.

French New Wave Essentials: JULES AND JIM
Saturday, August 1, & Sunday, August 2, 2009, 2:00 PM
$ 11.00 general admission, $ 7.00 for MAD and Museum of the Moving Image members/students/seniors; $ 20.00 general admission movie and Museum; $ 18.00 The Moving Image members/students/seniors.
No reservations, seating is first come, first served.

1962, 105 mins. Directed by François Truffaut. With Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Werner, Henri Serre. At once exuberant and poignant, Jules and Jim is the quintessential love triangle. Set in Paris, from the end of the Belle Epoque through the start of World War II, it follows the adventures of two Bohemian friends who each fall in love with the capricious and modern Catherine. The film is filled with invention, insight, and emotional depth, with Truffaut's direction enhanced by Georges Delerue's hauntingly evocative score and kinetic photography by Raoul Coutard.

French New Wave Essentials: VIVRE SA VIE
Saturday, August 1, & Sunday, August 2, 2009, 4:15 PM.
Saturday, August 1 screening introduced by Richard Brody, The New Yorker

1962, 85 mins. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The story of a woman who comes to Paris to become an actress but instead becomes a prostitute is told by Godard in twelve tableaux, an innovative style which balances formal rigor and Brechtian distance with the underlying emotionalism of the tragic tale. The style also allowed Godard to blend essay and documentary approaches with fictional filmmaking. Susan Sontag called it "one of the most extraordinary, beautiful, and original works of art that I know of...[it] seems to me a perfect film."

Richard Brody, film critic and editor at the New Yorker, wrote the book 'Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard', a critical biography about the life of Jean-Luc Godard. Brody's book discusses Godard's films and his personal life. Richard Brody will be at the film screening to introduce the film.

Studio Sundays: Narrative in Art
Sunday, August 2, 2009, 2:00- 4:00 PM

In order to understand the message behind art, MAD explores its temporary exhibitions and permanent collection to discover the message behind art works. Visitors have the chance to create their own unique art works to tell a personal story, using mixed media materials.

MADCrush
Thursday, August 6, 2009, 5:00-10:30pm

The Museum's new pop-up wine bar, MADCrush, combines the best of food, design, and wine. Created in collaboration with designer Stephanie Goto and Crush Wines & Spirits, the bar will be open every Thursday evening through the end of August, from 5 until 10:30 pm. Goto has created an imaginative dining environment with temporary furniture and décor constructed from recycled wine boxes. A roster of New York's best chefs, including Mark Ladner, Scott Conant, George Mendes, and Cesare Casella, provide a menu of light cuisine, accompanied by a selection of fine wines curated by Crush.

DIY Thursdays at MAD
Thursday, August 6, 2009, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Free with Thursday evening Pay-What-You-Wish admission

MAD's new series, DIY Thursdays at MAD, organized in partnership with Etsy, kicks off with a workshop lead by artist Sabrina Gschwandtner, founder and editor of KnitKnit. Sabrina will demonstrate a few simple ways to combine textile art and jewelry into one beautiful project: crocheted jewelry. Sabrina will be teaching how to make earrings (design by Julie A. Bolduc) and boutonnieres that are perfect for summer weddings, picnics, and barbeques. Materials will be provided. Drop in anytime you want.

Sabrina Gschwandtner is an artist who combines photographic and textile media in works that bridge the fields of contemporary art, craft and social history. She has exhibited her work internationally and was included in two exhibitions at the Museum of Arts and Design in 2007. She is the author of "KnitKnit: Profiles and Projects from Knitting's New Wave," and has lectured extensively on the revival of handcraft in popular culture. She received a BA in art/semiotics from Brown University and an MFA from Bard College. She is the recent recipient of an International Artist's Studio Program residency in Sweden.

Etsy is an on-line marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade: clothing, music, furniture, software, jewelry, robots. www.etsy.com.

French New Wave Essentials: CLEO FROM 5 TO 7
Saturday, August 8, & Sunday, August 9, 2009, 2:00 PM

1962, 90 mins. Directed by Agnes Varda. With Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller. Unfolding in real time, but with a jazzy, expressionistic style that echoes its heroine's inner journey, Agnes Varda's 1962 film about a famous model whose health crisis (and a fateful tarot card reading) cause her to reevaluate her life as she wanders through Paris, is one of the under-appreciated masterworks of the French New Wave. Varda called it "a portrait of a woman painted onto a documentary about Paris." In its dissection of celebrity culture and superficiality, the movie is especially timely today.

French New Wave Essentials: THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG
Saturday, August 8, & Sunday, August 9, 2009, 4:00 PM

1964, 91 mins. Directed by Jacques Demy. With Catherine Deneuve. It won the grand prize at Cannes and launched Catherine Deneuve to international stardom. But Jacques Demy's Technicolor-inspired all-singing romance about a young woman and her garage-mechanic boyfriend who goes off to war in Algeria was seen by many critics at the time as frivolous. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is now considered a classic. The film's aching romanticism is captured by Michel Legrand's wall-to-wall score, and Bernard Evein's impossibly lush production design.

Studio Sundays: Stories and Stitches
Sunday, August 9, 2009, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

In this workshop MAD explores how artists have used textiles to tell individual and collective stories by looking at some fiber-based works on display in the Museum. Participants can then spin their own stories with the help of fabric and thread under the guidance of MAD's teachers.

MADCrush
Thursday, August 13, 2009, 5:00-10:30pm

The Museum's new pop-up wine bar, MADCrush, combines the best of food, design, and wine. Created in collaboration with designer Stephanie Goto and Crush Wines & Spirits, the bar will be open every Thursday evening through the end of August, from 5 until 10:30 pm. Goto has created an imaginative dining environment with temporary furniture and décor constructed from recycled wine boxes. A roster of New York's best chefs, including Mark Ladner, Scott Conant, George Mendes, and Cesare Casella, provide a menu of light cuisine, accompanied by a selection of fine wines curated by Crush.

DIY Thursdays at MAD
Thursday, August 13, 2009, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Free with Thursday evening Pay-What-You-Wish admission

MAD, in partnership with Etsy presents generation-T founder Megan Nicolay who will demonstrate some of the many ways to refashion old t-shirts into fun and unique new designs as part of DIY Thursdays at MAD. Visitors are invited to bring old band shirts, thrift store finds, and any t-shirts that could use a fashionable update. Drop in anytime.

Megan Nicolay is a writer, editor, photographer, dancer, renegade fashionista. Blending punk's Do-It-Yourself spirit with her own sculptor's vision, Megan's craft harkens back to Dadaist found-object art and collages. In 2006, Megan's ambition and style was celebrated by the publication of her book Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt (Workman Publishing Co.). In 2009, her second book Generation T: Beyond Fashion: 120 New Ways to Transform a T-shirt was published. You can catch clips from her appearances on local television news programs at her website, www.gerneration-T.com.

Etsy is an on-line marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade: clothing, music, furniture, software, jewelry, robots. www.etsy.com.

French New Wave Essentials: ALPHAVILLE
Saturday, August 15, & Sunday, August 16, 2009, 2:00 PM

1965, 99 mins. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina. Eddie Constantine plays hardboiled detective Lemmy Caution on a mission to destroy Professor Von Braun, who has created a dictatorial computer who controls the futuristic city of Alphaville. Godard found the most dehumanizing architecture in modern-day Paris to serve as the locations, and he filmed at night, enhancing the film's famous blending of science fiction, film noir, and Godard's own brand of surreal poetry.

French New Wave Essentials: LES BONNES FEMMES
Saturday, August 15, & Sunday, August 16, 2009 4:00 PM
1960, 100 mins. Directed by Claude Chabrol. With Bernadette Lafont, Claude Berri, Clotilde Joano, Mario David. Four young "shop girls" who work together in a Paris appliance store find different ways to escape their routine lives and find happiness, in this darkly humorous and highly formalized film, which Andrew Sarris called "Chabrol's great masterpiece...one of the great films of the 1960s."

MADCrush
Thursday, August 6, 2009, 5:00-10:30pm

The Museum's new pop-up wine bar, MADCrush, combines the best of food, design, and wine. Created in collaboration with designer Stephanie Goto and Crush Wines & Spirits, the bar will be open every Thursday evening through the end of August, from 5 until 10:30 pm. Goto has created an imaginative dining environment with temporary furniture and décor constructed from recycled wine boxes. A roster of New York's best chefs, including Mark Ladner, Scott Conant, George Mendes, and Cesare Casella, provide a menu of light cuisine, accompanied by a selection of fine wines curated by Crush.

DIY Thursdays at MAD
Thursday, August 20, 2009, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Free with Thursday evening Pay-What-You-Wish admission

MAD, in partnership with Etsy, opens its Studios every Thursday night in August and invites visitors to join artists for its hands-on workshops, DIY Thursdays at MAD. Artists and designers will lead participants in a different project each week, incorporating materials and techniques on view in MAD's exhibitions. Drop in anytime.

Etsy is an on-line marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade: clothing, music, furniture, software, jewelry, robots. www.etsy.com.

French New Wave Essentials: LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD
Saturday, August 22 & Sunday, August 23, 2009, 2:00 PM

1961, 94 mins. Directed by Alain Resnais. With Delphine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi. In a sumptuous, baroque grand hotel an elegant man tries to convince a beautiful woman that they have met a year before, setting off an enigmatic and dreamlike series of events in Alain Resnais's luscious, mysterious film. In many ways the quintessential arthouse movie, Last Year at Marienbad, with Delphine Seyrig's Coco Chanel gowns and Sacha Vierney's exquisite widescreen black-and-white photography, is both sensually and cerebrally engaging.

French New Wave Essentials: A WOMAN IS A WOMAN
Saturday, August 22, & Sunday, August 23, 2009, 4:00 PM

1961, 84 mins. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. With Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Brialy. Godard's first color film is a "neo-realistic" musical about an exotic dancer who decides to have a baby, throwing her boyfriend for a loop and sparking a triangle including Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy. Godard's insouciant film won a special award at the Berlin Film Festival for "originality, youth, audacity, impertinence."

MADCrush
Thursday, August 6, 2009, 5:00-10:30pm

The Museum's new pop-up wine bar, MADCrush, combines the best of food, design, and wine. Created in collaboration with designer Stephanie Goto and Crush Wines & Spirits, the bar will be open every Thursday evening through the end of August, from 5 until 10:30 pm. Goto has created an imaginative dining environment with temporary furniture and décor constructed from recycled wine boxes. A roster of New York's best chefs, including Mark Ladner, Scott Conant, George Mendes, and Cesare Casella, provide a menu of light cuisine, accompanied by a selection of fine wines curated by Crush.

DIY Thursdays at MAD
Thursday, August 20, 2009, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Free with Thursday evening Pay-What-You-Wish admission

MAD, in partnership with Etsy, opens its Studios every Thursday night in August and invites visitors to join artists for its hands-on workshops, DIY Thursdays at MAD. Artists and designers will lead participants in a different project each week, incorporating materials and techniques on view in MAD's exhibitions. Drop in anytime.

Etsy is an on-line marketplace for buying and selling all things handmade: clothing, music, furniture, software, jewelry, robots. www.etsy.com.

French New Wave Essentials: HAPPINESS LE BONHEUR)
Saturday, August 29, & Sunday, August 30, 2009, 2:00 PM

1965, 75 mins. With Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Marie-Françoise Boyer. In Agnes Varda's exquisitely colorful movie, a seemingly happy married man takes a mistress. Though set in bucolic landscapes and filmed with a vividly stylized and vibrant color palette, Happiness is sharply analytical beneath its sunny exterior. "I imagined a summer peach with its perfect colors," said Varda, "and inside there is a worm."

French New Wave Essentials: PIERROT LE FOU
Saturday, August 29, & Sunday, August 30, 4:00 PM

1965, 110 mins. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. With Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Samuel Fuller. With its vivid primary colors and Pop-Art boldness, Pierrot le Fou is a strikingly modern depiction of l'amour fou, a movie about what Godard described as "the last romantic couple:" an unhappy husband who leaves his wife and bourgeois life behind to take the road with his babysitter. In a memorable cameo, American director Samuel Fuller, playing himself, defines cinema: "A film is like a battleground. It's love, hate, action, violence, death. In one word - emotions."