Timken Museum also known as San Diego’s “jewel box” of fine art, held it’s eighth annual Art of Fashion 2015 fundraiser Monday, April 20 from 7-10 p.m. The event featured work from student designers and one was chosen that evening to receive a $5,000 scholarship. Dame Zandra Rhodes, international fashion icon and designer and honorary chair led the event.
Ten graduate student costume designers from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television’s (UCLA TFT) David C. Copley Center for Costume Design created half-scale costumes inspired by Claude-Joseph Vernet’s 1749 A Sea Port at Sunset from the Timken collection.
Students started working on the five month research project in September. The painting was chosen by Academy Award-nominated film and theater costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis, Ph.D., “I could’ve chosen any picture here and I hope you spend some time in the gallery, one would think that I would pick a portrait being a costume designer, but you see, I’m really interested in stories, and I wanted something where there were a lot of people and a lot of scenery and a lot of architecture because I wanted the students, I wanted their imaginations to fly.” Landis is also a professor and founding director of the UCLA TFT Copley Center.
Rhodes and an honorary committee had a private luncheon in the museum prior to the event to choose the lucky designer that would receive the $5,000 scholarship. The winner was first year UCLA graduate student Charlotte Ballard. She thanked her professors for their support and inspiration.
Fashion enthusiasts from all over Southern California also enjoyed appetizers, libations, desserts and a candy bar. A live violinist established an upbeat mood while models posed in front of paintings that inspired the costumes they were wearing. Designers were available to talk about what inspires them and the outfit their model wore. “The whole thing is so clever in expanding a museum so that the works of art jump to life in all different forms. Let’s see how far we can take the Timken into its world adventures and the way we’re spreading out now it seems pretty good,” said Rhodes.
This is considered one of Timken’s most important events. “It’s a brilliant way to construct a creative and interdisciplinary educational opportunity for extremely talented costume design students and it allows us to raise funds for our programs to keep the love of fine art alive in San Diego,” stated Anita Crider, chief operating officer of the museum. Proceeds from the event go to supporting the museum’s outreach programs.
The museum is free and open from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and Sundays 12:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and all major holidays. For more information visit timkenmuseum.org/ or call 619-239-5548.
About the Timken Museum of Art
Located in San Diego’s historic Balboa Park on the Plaza de Panama, the Timken Museum of Art is the permanent home of the Putnam Foundation’s world-class collection of European and American art and Russian icons. It is the only museum in Balboa Park that offers free admission to the public. Masterworks in the collection span 700 years of history and range from 14th century altar pieces through 18th century portraits and landscapes to 19th century still life. The works of Italian, Dutch, Flemish, French and American painters are represented, including those of Veronese, Guercino, Petrus Christus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jacques-Louis David and John Singleton Copley. The collection also includes the only Rembrandt painting on public display in the area.
