Spring Social with The AKC Collection

Date:
Tuesday May 6th, 2008

Time:
6.00-9.00pm

Location:
Ramscale
463 West Street
(at the corner of Bethune Street in the West Village)

Please RSVP by Friday May 2nd by writing to rsvp@luxurycouncil.com or by replying to this email

Please let us know if you will be bringing your dog, and please send us their name as well!

With Special Thanks to The AKC Gallery, Ramscale, and Isocurve
and in recognition of CampInteractive


Come join us at a spring cocktail reception featuring paintings from the American Kennel Club’s prestigious art collection. Sip wine and view these masterpieces in dog art and hear a brief introduction to the collection by Mr. William Secord, the world’s foremost authority on dog paintings of the 19th and 20th Century.

We couldn't have an event with the AKC without extending the invitation to your four-legged friends as well! Please join us in welcoming the spring with your dog at Ramscale, a magnificent 3,500 square foot loft space with 360 degree view of Manhattan and the Hudson River. The loft space includes a large terrace where we will have additional room for your dog to run and play.

Wine for the event has been donated in recognition of the charity CampInteractive.

The AKC Collection is composed of exclusive limited edition reproductions from the American Kennel Club’s prestigious art collection. Each of our limited-edition canvas giclées is hand-embellished with brushwork in the style of the original artist — making each a unique reproduction absolutely faithful to the original.

www.akcgallery.com

I am delighted to be associated with the AKC Gallery and their series of high quality reproductions of paintings from the prestigious collection of The American Kennel Club. It was over twenty-five years ago that I was hired to be the first director of the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog, and it is with particular fondness that I renew my association with the collection.

It was The American Kennel Club which opened my eyes to the glories of nineteenth century dog paintings. I was working at the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City when I was hired away to become the Dog Museum's first director. Since that time, I have focused my research on the history of dog painting and the dog in art. In 1990, I opened my commercial gallery which specializes in the exhibition and sale of nineteenth and early twentieth century dog paintings (www.dogpainting.com), and in 1992 my first book on dog painting was published: "Dog Painting, 1840-1940, A Social History of the Dog in Art." This was followed up in 2000 with "Dog Painting, The European Breeds," which included over 500 color illustrations and covered some 90 different dog breeds. The American Kennel Club later commissioned me to write a book on their collections, combined with the collections of The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog in Saint Louis. This resulted in "A Breed Apart, the Art Collections of The American Kennel Club and the American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog," first published in 2001. I have lectured extensively on the subject over the years, most recently at the Sporting Art Trust in London, England, and the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach.

The William Secord Gallery, located in New York City, at 52 East 76th Street, has been open to the public since 1990, and in addition to always having a large inventory of dog-related works of art available for purchase, we have had several thematic exhibitions over the years, including one-person exhibitions by the nineteenth century artists Maud Earl (1864-1943) and John Emms (1843-1912). We also have had exhibitions of three contemporary artists who paint portraits of dogs: Christine Merrill, Constance Payne and Charlotte Sorré. The gallery continues to be a focal point for those interested in the history of dogs and dog painting, and it is hoped that these pages will over the years further enhance our appreciation for the dog and the dog in art.

CampInteractive’s mission is to bridge the digital and leadership divide that plagues our nations inner cities by introducing the creative power of technology and the inspiration of the outdoors to underprivileged youth in one program.

At CampInteractive, inner city kids navigate two different adventures—into the wild and onto the Web—and emerge with a sense of innovation, teamwork and confidence that will vault them to the forefront of their generation.

CampInteractive taps young people in, establishing connections and handing them the tools. Suddenly, the future is theirs to create.

www.campinteractive.org