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FS13: L.A. Symposium

June 21 – 23, 2013 Los Angeles, CA

FS13: L.A. Sympo­sium was a four-day event uniting leading furni­ture makers, design thinkers and cura­tors from across the country for an ambi­tious roster of lectures, tours and exhi­bi­tions. A depar­ture from the Furni­ture Society’s typical confer­ence format, FS13: L.A. Sympo­sium harnessed the energy of L.A.’s design culture to explore issues crit­i­cal to designer-makers today: serial produc­tion, sustain­abil­ity, inno­va­tion and creative business practices.

FS13-Logo

The Society also part­nered with Craft in America for an after­noon & evening lineup of program­ming at the Craft in America Study Center on Satur­day June 22. Program­ming included a lecture by Jo Lauria, inde­pen­dent curator/​writer special­iz­ing in Deco­ra­tive Arts, Design and Crafts and former assis­tant curator at LACMA. Lauria gave a talk titled Furni­ture Trend-setting: The Evolu­tion and Contin­u­a­tion of Inno­va­tion in California Design.

FS13: L.A. Sympo­sium pushed demo­c­ra­tic design. To that end, in addi­tion to paid program­ming, the sympo­sium hosted a number of events open to the public:

A furni­ture Society-hosted exhi­bi­tion titled Craft + Design explor­ing the inter­sec­tion of furni­ture design and contem­po­rary life at Fifth Floor Gallery in China­town near the Los Angeles Conven­tion Center. The opening recep­tion was held the evening of Friday, June 21 from 6pm – 9pm.

A curated exhi­bi­tion high­light­ing the best student work from across the country was on view in Faculty Selects at booth 415 at Dwell on Design, the West Coast’s premier expo­si­tion of design for the home at the Los Angeles Conven­tion Center June 21 – 23. The Furni­ture Society was pleased to partner with Dwell on present­ing this exhibition.

One tour on Thurs­day, and two sepa­rate tours to cultur­ally signif­i­cant loca­tions in the L.A. vicin­ity on Friday, June 21. Pre-regis­tered partic­i­pants elected to visit either the Maloof Foun­da­tion, which cele­brates the life of the renowned crafts­man Sam Maloof, and the Gamble House, an Amer­i­can Arts and Crafts style home where the house and furnish­ings were designed by Charles and Henry Greene, or the home of the mid-century design lumi­nar­ies Charles and Ray Eames and the Moder­nica furni­ture factory that produces many of their items today. The tour also stopped by the Getty Villa in Malibu for lunch.