The Lower East Side Tenement Museum shows off the historic experiences of the many immigrants who have lived in that neighborhood, and Pamela Keech of Curious Curators took clever inspiration from the area's ethnic patchwork to decorate the museum's 15th annual benefit at the Ritz-Carlton New York - Battery Park.
Keech, who often works with the museum creating installations and exhibits, came up with different centerpieces to represent the various ethnic groups that have passed through the Lower East Side. Italian flags and fresh pasta were draped over miniature framework houses. Glass noodles, chopsticks, Chinese candies and black fungus mushrooms Keech purchased on Grand Street filled round baskets. Waffle cones and candy canes filled vintage Necco ice cream buckets. Miniature metal bicycle carts with a rack of beer bottles represented the history of an actual German immigrant who lived in the museum's building and operated a beer garden. And a female silhouette cutout in pink transparent plastic, a cigar and an antique artificial flower propped atop a trio of giant clothespins showed off the neighborhood's historic trades of dressmaking, flower peddling and cigar-making.
Expanding upon the history of businesses in the neighborhood, the ballroom's presentation area took on similar themes. Using props from Eclectic/Encore Props, Keech created a podium by stacking rugged crates adorned with a vintage "Furnished Apartment" sign. A pushcart with rags and signage in Hebrew and a reproduction of a sanitation cart decorated the podium.
In the cocktail area, guests could mingle while listening to the accordion music of Walter Kuhr (of Main Squeeze, a neighborhood merchant) and shop actual Lower East Side merchants' wares set up on tables. The museum smartly showcased its own retail goods by selling gift shop items from a newsstand from Eclectic/Encore. Amidst the merchant tables was a shoeshine stand where more than a few guests got their wingtips polished.
—Mark Mavrigian
Read about last year's event...
Keech, who often works with the museum creating installations and exhibits, came up with different centerpieces to represent the various ethnic groups that have passed through the Lower East Side. Italian flags and fresh pasta were draped over miniature framework houses. Glass noodles, chopsticks, Chinese candies and black fungus mushrooms Keech purchased on Grand Street filled round baskets. Waffle cones and candy canes filled vintage Necco ice cream buckets. Miniature metal bicycle carts with a rack of beer bottles represented the history of an actual German immigrant who lived in the museum's building and operated a beer garden. And a female silhouette cutout in pink transparent plastic, a cigar and an antique artificial flower propped atop a trio of giant clothespins showed off the neighborhood's historic trades of dressmaking, flower peddling and cigar-making.
Expanding upon the history of businesses in the neighborhood, the ballroom's presentation area took on similar themes. Using props from Eclectic/Encore Props, Keech created a podium by stacking rugged crates adorned with a vintage "Furnished Apartment" sign. A pushcart with rags and signage in Hebrew and a reproduction of a sanitation cart decorated the podium.
In the cocktail area, guests could mingle while listening to the accordion music of Walter Kuhr (of Main Squeeze, a neighborhood merchant) and shop actual Lower East Side merchants' wares set up on tables. The museum smartly showcased its own retail goods by selling gift shop items from a newsstand from Eclectic/Encore. Amidst the merchant tables was a shoeshine stand where more than a few guests got their wingtips polished.
—Mark Mavrigian
Read about last year's event...
At the Lower East Side Tenement Musuem's benefit, Pamela Keech created centerpieces inspired by the neighborhood's immigrant history, including a miniature framework house draped with drying fresh pasta and small Italian flags.
Baskets filled with candies, dried mushrooms, and here with glass noodles and chopsticks made for a creative representation of Chinese immigrants.
For the presentation area, props from Eclectic/Encore Props represented the business activity on the Lower East Side over a century ago with pushcarts, a sanitation cart and vintage signage.
The museum smartly showcased its gift shop's merchandise in a newsstand.
