This special ArtSmart Lunch & Learn event, titled Attitude and Style: A Conversation with Iris Apfel, An Interview by Steven Caras, will be held on Monday, February 15, 2016 at 11:30 a.m. at the Kravis Center.
At 93 years old, Apfel’s ageless playfulness and keen fashion sense made her a natural subject for documentarian filmmaker Albert Maysles. Iris was the late producer’s last film, and was shown in theaters across the country earlier this year.
A Queens, N.Y., native, Apfel studied art at New York University and the University of Wisconsin before joining the staff of Women’s Wear Daily and later forming her own fabric company, Old World Weavers, with her late husband Carl Apfel. Her status in the fashion world was cemented when her personal wardrobe was featured in the exhibition Rara Avis: The Irreverent Iris Apfel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005, and she has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
ArtSmart Lunch & Learn guests will join Apfel and her close friend Steven Caras, former dancer with the New York City Ballet, as they intimately discuss the life and times of Iris, her colorful road to success, her new line, her old memories and her ever-increasing celebrity. Excerpts from Iris will be viewed and discussed.
The series of three continuing arts education events includes lively lectures presented during lunch prepared by Catering by The Breakers at the Kravis Center. Tickets are $85 and go on sale to the public starting October 3rd. Tickets are currently on sale to Kravis Center donors. Lunch & Learn lectures are held in the Kravis Center’s Cohen Pavilion.
The 2015-2016 ArtSmart Lunch & Learn line-up* includes such varied topics as Way Out of the Doll’s House: The Life and Wit of Nora Ephron, a celebration of her world and words with Lee Wolf and Julie Gilbert on January 18th; and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: The Subtle Staying Power of an American Icon, a compelling discussion of the poise under pressure of America’s most alluring First Lady with Lee Wolf and Steven Caras on March 21st.
Award-winning business leader, actress and lecturer, Lee Wolf also serves as a member of the Kravis Center Board of Directors. A 14-year dancer with the New York City Ballet, Steven Caras maintains an active schedule as a published author, featured lecturer, photographer, dance critic, guest ballet master and fundraiser. After 19 years of Lee Wolf chairing the series, Steven Caras joined her in 2012 to form this dynamic duo as co-chairs for the Lunch & Learn series for ArtSmart at the Kravis Center.
For more than 20 years, the nonprofit Kravis Center for the Performing Arts has helped students of all ages fuel their imaginations and expand their lives through comprehensive arts education programs. Last season, nearly 60,000 children from Palm Beach, Broward, Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties attended numerous performances through the Kravis Center S*T*A*R (Students and Teachers Arts Resource) Series. More than 3,000 adults attended ArtSmart continuing education classes and lectures – with topics ranging from Marilyn Monroe to Cuban folklore music.
Centrally located in West Palm Beach, the Kravis Center is one of the premier performing arts centers in the Southeast with a renowned national and international reputation. Established as a leading force in the social fabric of the community, its many outreach programs are as broad and varied as the community itself. To date, the Center has opened the door to the performing arts for approximately 2 million school children.
For general information about the Kravis Center performances and events like the ArtSmart Lunch & Learn series, please visit www.kravis.org or call the box office at 561-832-7469 (561-832-SHOW).
*Please see below for details on each 2015-2016 Lunch & Learn lecture.
2015-2016 Lunch & Learn line-up:
MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2016 AT 11:30 A.M.
Way Out of the Doll’s House: The Life and Wit of Nora Ephron
Talk about a brainy, funny, lucky, cosmopolitan Cinderella! Nora Ephron’s journey spans from being a writers’ daughter to marrying writers to becoming the most celebrated writer of them all. Ephron triumphed as a journalist, essayist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and director. She is best known for her romantic comedies and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Writing for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, and Sleepless in Seattle. A feminist-romantic, she believed in love and equal play. She was a radiant creator, who departed all too soon. Celebrate her world and words with Lee Wolf and Julie Gilbert, novelist, biographer, playwright and founder/instructor of The Writers’ Academy at the Kravis Center. Sponsored by Leona F. Chanin.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2016 AT 11:30 A.M.
Attitude and Style: A Conversation with Iris Apfel, An Interview by Steven Caras
As a young apprentice entering the world of fashion and design, Iris Apfel received both good and bad news from department store founder Frieda Loehmann: “…you’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter. You have something much better. You have style.”
Today, 93 year-old Apfel is by all accounts, an icon, whose 2005 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Rara Avis: The Irreverent Iris Apfel) cemented the status. She is the subject of Iris, a newly released documentary, currently receiving critical raves around the globe but she’s a smaller screen fixture as well. On the Home Shopping Network, which carries Apfel’s line of affordable jewelry, handbags and footwear, you’ll often spot Iris, insisting, “style is nothing more than Attitude — Attitude — Attitude!”
ArtSmart Lunch & Learn guests will join Apfel and her close friend Steven Caras, former dancer with the New York City Ballet, as they intimately discuss the life and times of Iris, her colorful road to success, her new line, her old memories, and her ever-increasing celebrity. Excerpts from Iris will be viewed and discussed. Sponsored by Susan Bloom.
MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016 AT 11:30 A.M.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: The Subtle Staying Power of an American Icon
The importance of social presentation was arguably the best advice Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ father, “Black Jack” Bouvier III, could have offered his little girl. She most certainly would apply his counsel throughout her years because poise under pressure became a routine necessity for America’s most alluring First Lady. Join Lee Wolf and Steven Caras in a compelling discussion of Jackie’s life – starting with Miss Porter’s Prep School, followed by Vassar and a sojourn to Paris – all in preparation for an unforeseen existence filled with more travails and tragedies than her pristine public persona would ever reveal. Sponsored by Leona F. Chanin.