MAD Presents Visionaries Awards at 2015 MAD BALL Tonight

Tonight, November 3rd, 2015, the Museum of Arts and Design's highly anticipated annual gala celebrating outstanding individuals in the arts and design fields will take place at Pier 60.

This event brings together more than 400 guests, including art patrons, artists, designers, and noted corporate and civic leaders. The MAD Ball recognizes visionaries in the worlds of business, arts, philanthropy, and creativity. The Museum of Arts and Design is pleased to announce this year's honorees: jewelry designer Victoire de Castellane, CEO of Kate Spade & Company Craig Leavitt, furniture, lighting, and renowned mannequin designer Ralph Pucci, and hotelier Ian Schrager. The evening will be hosted by Simon Doonan.

This year's Visionaries! Awards will celebrate the second year of exciting leadership with Director Glenn Adamson. Reflecting MAD's mission to celebrate innovation and excellence across all creative disciplines, MAD is honoring a range of artists, designers and artisans, as well as the enterprises and patrons who support them.

The Museum is proud to recognize KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, the official airline of MAD, as the lead corporate sponsor of MAD BALL 2015. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines showcases top creative Dutch talent including Hella Jongerius, Viktor & Rolf and Marcel Wanders to elevate the customer experience and bring style, comfort, and sustainability to all aspects of its aircraft.

The Museum commissioned New York based artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz to create the awards this year. Tackling everything from political artworks to giant public art projects, from functional sculptures to experimental furniture, from women's shoes to racing motorcycles, Errazuriz explores the border between the sculptural, symbolic and functional qualities of both art and design.

The MAD Ball is the Museum's most important annual fundraiser. Proceeds from MAD Ball help fund MAD's general operations as well as its education, public and exhibition programs, which serve over 300,000 people per year.

This year's event chairs are Jerome A. Chazen and Edwin B. Hathaway and the host committee chair is Andi Potamkin.

The lively and festive evening will begin at 6:30pm with cocktails and silent auction followed by dinner, the awards presentation, and live entertainment at 7:30pm. Tickets to the MAD Ball 2015 can be purchased thestore.madmuseum.org/collections/mad-ball-2015 or by contacting Stephanie Lang at 212.299.7729 or Stephanie.lang@madmuseum.org.

ABOUT THE HONOREES:

Victoire de Castellane - French jewelry designer Victoire de Castellane is known for her wildly fantastical designs using precious stones. She started her career working alongside Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel for 14 years, and has received acclaim as creative director of Christian Dior's fine jewelry division since 1998, a role she continues to this day.

Craig Leavitt - Craig Leavitt, CEO of Kate Spade & Company, will be honored for his innovative and forward-thinking contributions to the business of fashion. Through his leadership, Kate Spade & Company has grown into a global, multichannel lifestyle brand that designs and markets accessories and apparel principally under two brands: kate spade new york and Jack Spade. Through the work of its Foundation, Kate Spade & Company focuses on empowering women to transform their communities through trade-based initiatives.

Ralph Pucci - Ralph Pucci, CEO of Ralph Pucci International, will be awarded for his visionary approach to designing the familiar form of the mannequin. Pucci has collaborated with luminaries such as Diane von Furstenberg, Maira Kalman, Patrick Naggar, Andrée Putman, Kenny Scharf, Anna Sui, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Christy Turlington and Veruschka.

Ian Schrager - Hotelier Ian Schrager will be given the Lifetime Achievement award for his dramatic elevation of travel experiences and reinvention of hotels, residences, and nightclubs as sites of cultural significance that seamlessly integrate art and commerce. He has provided the platforms for some of the world's most noted architects and designers to shine. With his many projects including Studio 54, the Palladium, the Gramercy Park and St. Martins Lane hotels, and the new Edition and Public Hotels currently opening around the world, Schrager is responsible for a body of work that will have as much impact on the history of design as the oeuvre of many architects.

Past Honorees of MAD's Visionaries! Awards have included:

- Architects and Designers Ron Arad, Michael Aram, Michael Graves, Vladimir Kagan, Ligne Roset John Loring, Todd Oldham, Nadja Swarovski, Lella and Massimo Vignelli, Marcel Wanders

- Business Leaders Daniel L. Doctoreff, President of Bloomberg LP; Jean-Louis Dumas of Hermes, Martha Stewart, CEO of Martha Stewart Living, Burton M. Tanksy, CEO of Neiman Marcus

- Artists El Anatsui, Dale Chihuly, Ruth Duckworth, Sophie Grojsman, Sam Maloof, William Morris, Frank Stella, Lino Tagliapietra, Toshiko Takezu, Lenore Tawney, Peter Voulkos, David and Sybil Yurman, Eva Zeisel

- Gallerists Linda Boone and Ferdinand Hampson, Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio, Helen W. Drutt English, Barry Friedman, Douglas and Michael Heller

- Patrons of the Arts Jerome Chazen, Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, Nanette L. Laitman, Henry Luce III, Barbara Tober

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields, presenting artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill to their work. Since the Museum's founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from traditional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum's curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving 21st-century innovation, fostering a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design.