Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand|Audio
November 1, 2016
S1E3: Deborah Berke
Deborah Berke is the founding partner of Deborah Berke Partners and the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.
Most hotel art is really terrible. In fact, maybe the most derogatory thing you could say about a work of art is, “Oh my God, that looks like hotel art.“
The series of 21c Museum Hotels— designed by Berke and found in cities like Louisville, Cincinnati, and Bentonville, Arkansas — show works from the contemporary art collection of its founders, Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown. The provocative works of art play off of southern hospitality, Berke says:
It allows Grandma and Great Aunt Mary to stand in front of the set of champagne glasses that are cast from penises and have a perfectly normal conversation.
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By Michael Bierut & Jessica Helfand
Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.
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