Prairie Arts Blog

Prairie Arts At Wright And Like

Prairie Arts teamed up with our friends at Copeland Furniture to present official Frank Lloyd Wright Collection licensed products at the 2007 Wright and Like event in Wisconsin. We also brought along some  prototype Teco Art Pottery Collection™ pieces to debut at the event--and people we're definitely excited! Look for more info on the official Teco launch later this month.

The wonderful people at the Wright in Wisconsin did an outstanding job of putting together a great set of tours and activities for this year's Wright and Like event. If you missed it, look forward to 2008 to attend what will surely be another fantastic time. For more info, visit the Wright and Like website.

Prairie Arts At Unity Temple Benefit Gala

The 5th Annual Restoration Gala to benefit Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple was a success! The Wright designed building was all a glow with dramatic lighting and Japanese lanterns. Traditional Japanese drummers performed for the audience, who also enjoyed sake tastings and fine food from Oak Park area restaurants.

Prairie Arts was proud to donate two pieces from our product line to the silent auction fund raiser: A large Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Playroom Art Screen and a framed Unity Temple Wasmuth fine art print. We we're glad to contribute to this worthy cause!

Photos copyright Benchernif

Prairie Arts at WrightPlus 2007

Prairie Arts will be guests of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust at their annual WrightPlus event on May 19th, 2007. Our team will be available all day to answer questions about our products, plus there will be a special stencil demonstration time from 10am-2pm. If you'd like to try to paint one of our Frank Lloyd Wright stencils, stop by our booth behind the FLW Home & Studio Museum Shop on Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, IL.

The weather should be gorgeous and we look forward to meeting you in person!

Shout Out From Phil

The Prairie Arts group attended the "Prairie Skyscraper" opening reception and lecture this evening at the Chicago Architecture Foundation and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were especially proud to be given a "shout out" by Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation President and CEO, Phillip Allsopp. Thanks for the love, Phil!

If you're in Chi-town, check out the exhibit and the gift store (where you can find plenty of Prairie Arts stencils and authentic Louis Sullivan wooden ornaments!)

Taliesin West Behind The Scenes

Well, we finally got to spend some time at Taliesin West today. We toured many different Wright sites around the Phoenix area yesterday, so we were looking forward to exploring the main attraction: Taliesin West itself.

The day started with breakfast in the Wright's living room, followed by an in depth behind-the-scenes tour of the complex. We saw the newly restored Wright's bedroom and then the drafting room with its impressive overhead lighting and triangular shaped design. They then took us through the cabaret room with its amazing lighting and the kiva, a meeting place inspired from the Native American building of the same name. We ended up in the theater, which has a brightly painted homage to the mural originally designed for Midway Gardens, Chicago. As we walked back to our conference area, we took a snapshot of the bell tower that called us to lunch.

After some meetings, they took us on a tour of the archives--which holds over 300,000 items designed, given to, or collected by Frank Lloyd Wright. Next we toured some of the surrounding areas of Taliesin West. We toured a few of the Taliesin Architecture student's shelters. They build them out in the desert and live in them while studying at the school. Learn by doing! Next we saw the William Wesley Peters library with its interesting canvas sails. The library holds much of the Taliesin Associate Architects materials, writings and drawings.

On the way back from all the tours and meetings we shot a few photos of some of the interesting design elements and sconces that are everywhere in this amazing campus of buildings. The day was rounded off with a special gallery opening at Forsey's for Copeland Furniture's line of Frank Lloyd Wright designed furniture. We were asked to provide some of our framed prints to add to the ambiance of the room scenes. You can see them on the wall behind Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Tim Copeland. Bruce worked with Mr. Wright for ten years and is responsible for organizing and cataloging the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, preserving it for future generations to enjoy. All-in-all, a pretty amazing day!

The Ultimate Wright Tour

Today was another jammed packed day, but pretty amazing none the less. Here's what we got to see today:

Our first stop was the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium. Considered the last public commission designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, it was built in 1962 after Mr. Wright passed away. The building was originally intended for Baghdad, Iraq. Instead it was chosen by Arizona State University for their auditorium. A truly amazing building, it's acoustics are phenomenal and it enjoys many major Broadway performances on its stage.

The next stop was the First Christian Church in Phoenix. This was also designed by Wright for a different client and built after he passed away. This building has an amazing art glass installation inside and a series of concrete "dendriforms" that anchor the building to its site.

We got back on the bus and headed toward the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. Frank Lloyd Wright consulted on this site, but disavowed himself of the building after its architect, Albert Chase McArthur made significant changes to the design against Wright's consul. It's a concrete block covered wonder that has enjoyed some famous visitors, including Clark Gable, Irving Berlin, Marilyn Monroe, plus many more.

After lunch it was time to go to the Norman Lykes House up on one of the mountains in Phoenix. What a treat! This house is immaculate and its current owner was an incredibly gracious host. We all enjoyed a tour of the cinder-block circular design home. This was one of the nicest homes we've ever been in.

Finally, we rounded the day off with a special tour of the Harold Price Sr. House in Paradise Valley, Phoenix. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for one his most important clients (Harold Price commissioned the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma). Made entirely of simple materials, it's truly a remarkable home. The patio space had some remarkable hand painted doors the displayed the geometric design skills of Mr. Wright's secretary, Eugene Masselink.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We're looking forward to our behind-the-scenes tour of Taliesin West tomorrow!

Hello From Scottsdale

We landed in Phoenix this afternoon to 94 degree heat! Definitely not the cool October weather we're used to in Chicago. We made our way to Taliesin West to check out the book shop and how our products were doing there. We were very pleased to see the decorative wood screens displayed in a dramatic and wonderfully effective way. See for yourself:

Hung from the ceiling, customers can get a sense of how intricate the different designs are and how amazing they look with light shining through them. As we were leaving, we were able to take some excellent shots of the Taliesin entrance as the Arizona sun was setting:

Our last stop for the evening was the large blue Spire at intersection of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard & Scottsdale Road. It's the only aspect of the Arizona Capitol/Oasis project that was ever executed. Built in 2004, it signified Mr. Wright's third century of executed architectural designs, the only architect in history to enjoy such an accomplishment:

We'll keep you posted on the all the cool sights from Scottsdale throughout the week, so stay tuned!

Headin' West

Well, we're off to Taliesin West this next week for a Frank Lloyd Wright Licensee conference. We'll be bringing our laptops with, so we'll keep you posted on the cool events and news-worthy items we come across. We'll also make sure to snap some photos of the different sights we see, as well as, one of the most amazing places ever built--Taliesin West!

Check in with us later for more details!

Image courtesy of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

Reception At Tiffany's

Everyone lights up when they see that little blue box from Tiffany & Company. Now there's a different reason to get excited. Internationally known "starchitect," Frank Gehry has partnered with Tiffany to produce a line of jewelery. Tiffany's will be launching the line of Frank Gehry jewelry nationally with the "Rolling launch" starting in California. Chicago will get to have it's own launch event, held at the Oak Brook Center Tiffany & Co. store, Saturday September 16th. The invitation only cocktail reception will is being held in conjunction with a special fund raiser for the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. A short program discussing Tiffany's, Gehry and the Preservation Trust's work at both the Home and Studio and Robie House will be given. There will also be a special Frank Gehry piece raffle and silent auction containing four Wright-related pieces and three Tiffany's pieces.

Prairie Arts loves a swanky event as much as the next person and we love supporting the Preservation Trust, so we made sure to donate one of our exquisitely detailed Dining Room decorative wooden screens for the silent auction. If you don't have a ticket to the event, you can check out the Gehry collection at the Tiffany website.

Image courtesy of Tiffany & Co.