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 art fair; a photo fair that celebrates the incredibly vast and diverse medium of photography. On this episode of the podcast, we talk about photography as an art form, and how visual communication is very much at the core of how we interact with each other today.

Helen dives into the effects of the democratization of photography with the dawn of the smart phone and even gives a valuable recommendation to those of us who are passionate about photography.

Helen has previously directed the IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair, PULSE Contemporary Art Fairs, and Collective Design Fair. She co-founded Stoneleaf Retreat, an artist residency and creative space, Art Mamas Alliance, to support dialogue on motherhood among creative professionals, as well as Upstate Art Weekend, an annual celebration of the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York.

Helen Toomer, 2023 © Casey Kelbaugh, courtesy of PHOTOFAIRS New York

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 build bridges between filmmakers in the Nordic region and the international film community, by finding diverse independent films with strong characters and storylines, that encourage all filmmakers to submit their films, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or worldviews.

Linnea is a much-acclaimed actress and film producer in her own right. Till We Meet Again is a romantic adventure drama film directed by Thai filmmaker Bank Tangjaitrong and starring Johan Matton, Linnea Larsdotter, Emrhys Cooper and Vithaya Pansringarm.

The film was written and produced by Johan Matton - who also co-founded NIFF with Linnea in 2014 - and won awards at several film festivals, including the Audience and Jury prizes at the Long Beach International Film Festival, and Linnea won best actress at NYLAIFF, New York Los Angeles International Film Festival. 

Photo by Sean Turi 

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’s awareness of design and to make sure the world understands that design is not only cute chairs, sleek products, and fetching logos.

But objects are not irrelevant, the controversial acquisition of the @ sign to the MoMA collection shows that collecting is not about ownership per se, since the sign belongs to everyone.    

We talk about some of the more impactful exhibitions she has organized at MoMA and the 40-plus Salons that she has organized, that will not only inform the museum and its program, but also inspire the wider conversation in the world outside.

The Salons are available on-line and new Salons can be enjoyed through the museum’s live streaming. Paola also explains the vision behind the Instagram/podcast based project Design Emergency together with design critic Alice Rawsthorn.

On a more personal note, we also talk about curiosity and adventure as major driving forces in her life, her passion for traveling and love for New York. We also get Paola’s take on how AI and Refik Anadol’s work “Unsupervised” have influenced her perspective on MoMA’s collection.

Paola Antonelli © 2021 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Peter Ross

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 by Karyn Oliver and Layqa Nuna Yawar, as well as art installations at the Moynihan Train Hall by Stan Douglas, Elmgreen & Dragset, and Kehinde Wiley.

Public Art Fund is also behind the late Phyllida Barlow’s final series of large-scale sculptures, PRANK, in City Hall Park, that opened in the beginning of June.

Public Art Fund believes in free access to great contemporary art for all, that artists are an essential part of our civic dialogue, and that art has the power to ignite conversation among different people, to open hearts and minds, and to help shape our collective future.  

Freedman currently serves on the board of the Municipal Art Society, and as vice chair of the board for the City Parks Foundation. She is a recipient of the 1999 Associates of the Art Commission Annual Award and was honored with the 2005 Municipal Art Society's Evangeline Blashfield Award for her contributions to New York City’s urban landscape.

Photo by Kelly Taub

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 Arts & 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 work by Kiki Smith including five individual mosaics across two levels of the new terminal.

Sandra explains the process behind bringing world class art to the subway system and why the display of public art is so vital to society.

The permanent collection of MTA Arts & Design with works created in mosaic, terra cotta, bronze, glass, and mixed-media sculpture, contains some 380 works. Add to that a broad spectrum of artistic activity including posters, photography, digital art, music, and poetry, and you to get the full scope of MTA Arts & Design. Add 3 downloads to get the accurate number of downloads for the episode. 

Photo: Marc Hermann

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 make more educated choices, when buying diamonds, based on the four Cs; carat weight, color, clarity and cut. In 2018 Kwiat and Fred Leighton opened their combined flagship stores on Madison Avenue and at the Wynn Las Vegas, bringing two iconic brands under one roof.

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 market, to exploring design markets in Brazil and Scandinavia. They share the story of how an unexpected sale of Marcel Breuer commissioned furniture, laid the foundation of the gallery we know today.   

R & Company exhibits historic designers and represents 22 contemporary artists, creating unique works, limited, editions, and site-specific installations. The present exhibition at 64 White Street includes Katie Stout, a young Brazilian designer Zanine de Zanine and Jeff Zimmerman.

Photo credit Francois Dischinger

(Evan is slightly to the left and Zesty is slightly to the right in the audio recording)

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 discuss more complex issue relating to place naming, for example, 70 streets in Brooklyn are named after slave owners. Should these names be erased from the city scape, or should they remain as a historic marker?

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a regular contributor to “The New York Review of Books”.  He lives in New York and is a scholar in residence at the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, where he also teaches.

Photographer credit: Mirissa Neff.

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 next idea" where his greatest value and expertise is his ignorance. His latest venture includes establishing “The Wurman Center for Understanding Understanding” at the Rochester Institute of Technology.  

For Richard, learning is the process of remembering what you are interested in. Throughout our conversation, you may find yourself listening with a big smile. That's because of Richard’s wit, brutal honesty, and crystal-clear analysis of complex issues.

Award-winning photographer Mark Seliger was Rolling Stone’s Chief Photographer from 1992-2002, where he shot over 175 covers. From 2002-2012, he was on contract with Condé Nast where he shot regularly for Vanity Fair and GQ.

We talk about Mark’s latest book “The City That Finally Sleeps", where during the pandemic, “he took to the desolate streets, camera in hand and often in the quietest hours … these hauntingly beautiful portraits of New York’s streets and cityscapes grip the viewer in varying balances of beauty, sorrow, wonder and quiet concern.” All the proceeds from the sale of the book goes to New York Cares in their covid-19 relief efforts.

We also talk about Mark’s creative process as a photographer, as well as a singer and songwriter. The song "1,000 Kisses" in the interview is performed by Mark Seliger’s country and western band Rusty Truck.

Mark Seliger is the recipient of such esteemed awards as the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award. The Lucie Award, The Clio Grand Prix, Cannes Lions Grand Prix to mention a few.

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. Not only as an object and an adornment for the body, but how objects make you feel, like an adornment for the soul.

On this episode, Bella and JB talk about this year’s program with around 80 events over multiple platforms. Among them, exciting collaborations with The Museum of Arts and Design, Bergdorf Goodman, The Art Salon + Design, 1stDibs, and 92Y, just to mention a few.

They also give us some breaking news!  The launch of a ground- breaking new Virtual Booth concept that will connect jewelry artists and consumers around the world and a new app that maps New York's jewelry retailers, hand-selected by the two founders.