From a rooftop exhibit at the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art into West Coast design festivals, you will find an assortment of inspiring things to keep your home looking refreshing this summer. Bookmark this guide, grab a friend and make some plans to escape and get motivated.
Tell us What’s in your calendar this month? Let us know about your favorite upcoming design occasions below.
tomassaraceno.com
EXHIBIT — During November 4, 2012 (weather permitting)
Tomás Saraceno on the Roof: Cloud City
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Climb and walk throughout the Met’s latest rooftop summer commission: Tomás Saraceno’s Cloud City. The reflective, interconnected constellation of contemporary structures is an impressive web of Plexiglas, steel and tension cables reminiscent of an urban jungle gym. The Argentine installation artist explores habitable networks based on interconnectivity, and while you ponder the ways that we occupy and experience our environment, you are going to find a pretty sweet view of Manhattan.
Hours: Tuesday–Thursday, Sunday, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.; Friday, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.–9:00 p.m.; closed Mondays (except holidays, Thanksgiving Day, December 25 and January 1)
Price: $25, $17 seniors, $12 students, 12 and younger, free
beautyisembarrassing.com
FESTIVAL — June 14–24, 2012
Los Angeles Film Festival
Calling all cinephiles! Whether documentaries, short films or music videos are something, the Los Angeles Film Festival has something that you see. One of the many films to be screened, the documentary Beauty Can Be Embarrassing (photo) by manager Neil Berkeley follows artist Wayne White’s career, extending from New York’s East Village into the set of Pee Wee’s Playhouse into the thrift shops of Los Angeles. The Summer Showcase Provides a look at the summer’s most talked-about independent film releases on the festival circuit, including Sundance romantic humor Celeste and Jesse Forever, starring Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg, to the world premiere of L.A. “dramedy” It’s a Disaster, with America Ferrera and Julia Stiles. Also on the lineup is Pixar’s newest animated feature, Brave, starring a red-haired Scottish heroine.
Watch the schedule for screen times and places
Price: $13 individual films
Purchase tickets and passes online
FESTIVAL — June 22–24, 2012
Dwell on Design
Los Angeles Convention Center
Feast on contemporary design in the form of tens of thousands of products, presentations, home tours and presentations in this year’s Dwell on Design, celebrating the theme “Modern Beyond Expectations.” Highlights from the three-day occasion contains a rope installment from the Oyler Wu Collaborative, a screening lounge featuring short films on industrial design and architecture, in addition to winners of this prestigious Swiss Design Prize.
Check out the full schedule
Hours: Friday, 10 a.m.–8 pm; Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Tappan Collective
Chateau Marmont Photograph, Gia Coppola – $200
ART SHOW — June 9, 2012
The Tappan Collective Group Art Show and Launch Party
The Jeffries Building, 117 Winston St., Los Angeles
Two young creative graduates in the University of Michigan have teamed up to Supply an Internet platform for others to find emerging artists. To kick off their new internet venture, they’re placing on a launch celebration featuring artwork by photographer and filmmaker Gia Coppola (photo), photographer Clara Balzary-Flea, The Stillhouse Group and several others in downtown Los Angeles. Enjoy refreshments, meet the inspiring entrepreneurs on the other side of the site and take home that ideal piece for your sterile wall.
Hours: 7 p.m.–11 p.m.
museumofdesign.org
EXHIBIT — During June 3, 2012
Stories in Form: Chair Design by Portfolio Center
Museum of Design Atlanta
Have a seat, or reimagine what it means to do through the eyes of design students studying the history of modernism. The Museum of Design Atlanta has partnered with Portfolio Center to honor the background and design of this chair. Pupils were challenged to combine their personal history with design background, exploring the delicate balance between old function and their new imaginative journeys.
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 Gamble–5 pm; Sunday, 12 p.m.–5 pm; closed Mondays
Price: $10, $8 seniors, $5 students and 17 and younger, members free
FESTIVAL — June 23–July 8, 2012
London Festival of Architecture, U.K.
For two weeks this summer, London will become “The Playful City,” indicating ways where both Londoners and visitors can be active participants from reinterpreting recognizable places through new installations and cartoons. This curated festival redesigned three big hubs and multiple public spaces to encourage physical fitness at the spirit of the Olympic Games and interact with all the city’s historic buildings in new ways. “Date a designer” by simply enrolling in a free 30-minute consultation, explore a treehouse or select a walking tour to find that the city’s hidden architectural gems.
See the Entire event schedule
FESTIVAL — June 2–3, 2012
Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend
Menlo Park, California
Research the grounds of Sunset magazine’s Bay Area headquarters for the yearly weekend festival celebrating West Coast gardening, food, travel, home and garden. Love food tastings, chat with garden and home sellers or sip locally made wine. There will be plenty of things to see and do, from a cooking demonstration of grilled Dr. Pepper pork flatbread from the Food Network’s Guy Fieri into a workshop on travel photography using your smartphone.
Download the full schedule
Hours: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Price: $16, $14 seniors, 12 and younger, free; discounts available
FESTIVAL — June 11–17, 2012
San Francisco Design Week
Proceed an open-studio crawl and peek in the studios of Apparatus Architecture, Gensler and Lunar Design, or attend an exhibition presenting new typography from young Swiss designers. Celebrating the diverse creative community of the Bay Area, San Francisco Design Week is an initiative by AIGA SF in partnership with local professional design chapters to emphasize and increase public awareness of innovative design work. Events happen all around the city.
See the Entire schedule of events