THE GAMBLE HOUSE - Charles and Henry Greene's masterpiece of the American Arts & Crafts movement photo

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The Sidney D. Gamble Lecture Series, 2008-2009
Presented by the Friends of The Gamble House

Authors and lecturers delve into the decorative arts, architecture and landscape design; selected tours take you there. Ticket-ordering information follows below.

January 31, 2009

The Women of Tiffany Studios

Margaret K. Hofer

March 19, 2009

Charles Phoenix’s Southern Californialand!

Charles Phoenix
March 21, 2009

Tour: Charles Phoenix’s San Dena/Dena/Rino

 
April 22, 2009

Prefab Housing: From Craftsman to Contemporary

Leo Marmol

May 16, 2009

The Gardens of Hearst Castle

Victoria Kastner; followed by a garden tour

Horton Residence, 1932, Bel-Air, California. Collection of the New-York Historical Society

Tiffany Studios, Wisteria lamp; designed by Clara Driscoll, ca. 1901

The Women of Tiffany Studios

Margaret K. Hofer
Saturday, January 31, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Art Center College of Design, Ahmanson Auditorium, 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena (Google map)

Reception will follow at The Gamble House, 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena (directions)

Margaret K. Hofer will discuss new groundbreaking research on the role of women in the design and manufacture of Tiffany Studios’ famous leaded-glass lamps. The recently discovered correspondence of Clara Driscoll has revealed that it was Driscoll who designed many of the firm’s iconic lamps, including the Wisteria, Dragonfly and Peony. Ms. Hofer will discuss how:

  • Louis C. Tiffany believed that women had an innate sense of color and design and relied on the women’s glass-cutting department to select glass for many lamps and windows – and paid them on the same scale as the men.
  • Rivalry between the men's and women's departments created tension at Tiffany Studios, resulting in a strike by unionized male glass cutters in 1903.

Margaret K. Hofer, curator of decorative arts at the New-York Historical Society, co-curated its 2007 exhibition “A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls” with Martin Eidelberg and Nina Gray.

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Horton Residence, 1932, Bel-Air, California. Charles Phoenix Collection

Luer Quality Meat rocket, 1956 

Charles Phoenix’s
Southern Californialand!

Charles Phoenix
Thursday, March 19, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Neighborhood Church, 2 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena

Reception will follow at The Gamble House, 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena (directions)

A slide show by “histo-tainer” Charles Phoenix celebrates how locals lived, shopped, worked, played and partied in the 1950s and ’60s. Charles’ spectacular collection of Kodachrome slides together with his informed commentary, quick wit and keen eye for detail are sure to give you a whole new appreciation for the place he calls Southern Californialand.

See Pasadena, Downtown L.A., Hollywood, Marineland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Disneyland, Space Age suburbia and more.

Tour It: Charles Phoenix’s San Dena/Dena/Rino

Saturday, March 21, 2009, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A school bus field trip tour of classic and kitschy attractions in San Gabriel, Pasadena, Altadena and San Marino. Marvel at the Pasadena Museum of California Art and its spellbinding Kenny Scharf parking garage; journey to far-off exotic places at the Pacific Asia Museum; gasp while visiting a Craftsman-furniture-filled Castle Green pied-a-terre; enjoy a special luncheon at the California School of Culinary Arts; see the giant, playful sculptures at Monster Park; then tantalize your taste buds with Fosselman’s famous ice cream while enjoying a spectacular collection of vintage trailers displayed in a folk art environment at Funky Junk Farms.

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Horton Residence, 1932, Bel-Air, California. Joe Fletcher

Hidden Valley in Moab, Utah, completed 2007

Prefab Housing:
From Craftsman to Contemporary

Leo Marmol
Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

Art Center College of Design, Ahmanson Auditorium, 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena (Google map)

Reception will follow at The Gamble House, 4 Westmoreland Place, Pasadena (directions)

Leo Marmol will provide an overview on the history of prefab architecture and will discuss Marmol Radziner Prefab’s ongoing quest to explore the feasibility of creating modern, well-constructed homes within the constraints of a factory. Highlights will include:

  • A look at the history of prefab architecture
  • An overview of past Marmol Radziner Prefab projects from design to installation
  • An exploration of the efficiencies gained by building homes within a factory

Leo Marmol, FAIA, is the managing principal of the design/build firm Marmol Radziner + Associates. In 2005, the company launched Marmol Radziner Prefab to create green, modular homes that are built in its factory and delivered complete.

See it now: Prefab in progress

Video from the Los Angeles Times documents how prefabricated pieces came together to form the family residence of  Leo Marmol, managing partner of Marmol Radziner + Associates, on a lot in Venice in June. Marmol and business partner Ron Radziner are on hand to describe the process.

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Horton Residence, 1932, Bel-Air, California. Lisa Reitzel

Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California

The Gardens of Hearst Castle

Victoria Kastner
Saturday, May 16, 2009, 1 p.m.

Art Center College of Design, Ahmanson Auditorium, 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena (Google map)

Victoria Kastner will provide the first in-depth look at San Simeon’s landscape, examining the influence of the Arts & Crafts movement on its design. She will detail the garden’s history as well as discuss its wider meaning in early 20th century California. Specifically, she will:

  • Analyze Julia Morgan’s unrecognized work as William Randolph Hearst’s landscape architect
  • Discuss the contributions of Bernard Maybeck and other Arts & Crafts architects to San Simeon’s garden design
  • Link San Simeon to other landscape-related events in California, including the University of California’s campus design, the restoration of the missions, the preservation of the redwoods, and the two 1915 California World’s Fairs

Victoria Kastner is the historian at Hearst Castle and author of “Hearst Castle: The Biography of a Country House” (2000) and the upcoming “Hearst’s San Simeon: The Gardens and the Land.” She has lectured nationwide on San Simeon.

Tour It: Italian Spring in a San Rafael Garden

Saturday, May 16, 2009, following the lecture
Pasadena

Indulge in the romance of a bygone era amid the restored grounds of a 1919 Reginald Johnson Mediterranean Revival estate along Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco in the San Rafael Hills. Landscape architect Heather Lenkin will share her insights into the designs, details and plant materials that make up the property’s cultivated spaces including a walled orchard, rose garden, spring garden, desert-inspired “inferno garden” and a delightful secret garden. Refreshments will be served.

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Subscription and Ticket Information

Tickets are available for advance purchase, with discounts for buying the series and for Friends of The Gamble House (FOGH) members — membership starts at just $40.

To purchase tickets, call (626) 793-3334, ext. 52, or use this printable form.

Lectures

  • FOGH members: $20 per lecture, $55 for the series
  • General admission: $25 per lecture, $80 for the series
  • Students: $15 per lecture, $55 for the series
  • Note: “From Britain to Russia: An International View of the Arts & Crafts Movement” on November 7 is free but reservations at (626) 793-3334, ext. 52, are required.

Tours

  • Charles Phoenix’s San Dena/Dena/Rino: $110 for FOGH members, $125 general admission
  • San Rafael garden: $15 for FOGH members, $25 general admission

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Supporters

A generous anonymous donation ensures this annual presentation by notable authors and speakers will continue. Sponsored by the Friends of The Gamble House.


Past 2008-2009 Lecture Series Events

paintings Rosalind P. Blakesley

Teremok, by Sergei Malyutin; Talashkino estate, near Smolensk, Russia, 1901

From Britain to Russia:
An International View of the
Arts & Crafts Movement

Rosalind P. Blakesley
Friday, November 7, 2008, at 7 p.m.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, Friends’ Hall, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino (Google map)

The Arts & Crafts Movement was one of enormous intellectual ambition, encompassing everything from menus in Moscow to chic domestic architecture in the United States. The lecture will:

  • Examine some of the great British figures, including William Morris and Charles Robert Ashbee
  • Follow the movement’s little-known but fascinating progress in Russia
  • Provide a context for America’s unique contribution, not least The Gamble House

Dr. Rosalind P. Blakesley, senior lecturer in the history of art at the University of Cambridge, was a consultant for “International Arts and Crafts” (2005) at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and is the author of several books including “The Arts and Crafts Movement” (2006).

Note: This free lecture is the keynote address for a full-day conference November 8 at the Huntington, held in conjunction with the Gamble House Centennial exhibition “A ‘New and Native’ Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene,” at the Huntington’s Boone Gallery October 18 through January 26, 2009. To register for the conference: e-mail or call (626) 405-3432.

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View the archive of past Gamble House events…

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The Gamble House ~ Charles and Henry Greene’s 1908 masterpiece of the American Arts and Crafts movement
4 Westmoreland Place ~ Pasadena, California 91103 ~ map + directions ~ tel. (626) 793-3334 ~

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