Patti Smith will perform a live concert to celebrate Henry Darger’s birthday on Saturday 15 May 2010 in New York City, as part of a benefit evening for the American Folk Art Museum. Singer Caroline Jones will open the performance. An aerial performance by Cirque-tacular Entertainment, dancing and DJ are all part of the evening at the glamorous Espace in New York City.  The evening celebrates the esteemed Chicago artist Henry Darger, whose intimate collages are currently on view for the first time in the museum’s new exhibition “The Private Collection of Henry Darger”.  The America Folk Art Museum is home to the largest repository of artworks by Henry Darger.

The benefit’s chairmen are Lawrence B. Benenson, Peyton Cochran, Petra and Stephen Levin, and Ian Tobin. The Benefit Vice-Chairs include: Melinda Anderson, Barry D. Briskin, Joan Juliet Buck, Ken Copeland, Randall Fenlon, Henry Grimball, Alex Hahn, Michel Heredia, Elizabeth E. Jacoby, Luise and Robert Kleinberg, Taryn and Mark Leavitt, Jessica London, Frances S. Martinson, Gillian McCain, Angela and Selig Sacks, Amanda Salvaggio, Amanda Smeal, Sarah Sperling, Samantha Thompson, Michael Trese, Wayne Verspoor, and Jason Whalen.  Event production by JKS Events. Art In America and Fabrica generously will sponsor the event.

Tickets for the benefit are priced as follows:

-Friend Ticket/s at $250 per person

Includes the concert; premium open bar; access to the after-concert party; and a Fabrica Patti Smith Collector’s item gift bag and notebook.

-VIP[1] Ticket/s at $500 per person

Includes VIP access to pre-and after-Concert parties, with premium open bar and hors d’oeuvres; reserved concert seating; a Fabrica Patti Smith collectors’ item gift bag and notebook; and an autographed copy of Just Kids by Patti Smith.

-Platinum VIP Ticket/s at $1,000 per person

Includes exclusive cocktail party with Patti Smith at 7 pm; VIP access to pre-and after-concert parties with premium open bar hors d’oeuvres; prime reserved concert seating; and Fabrica Patti Smith collectors’ item gift bag and notebook; and autographed copy of Just Kids by Patti Smith; a private curatorial tour at the American Folk Art Museum; and prominent name recognition at the event and on the museum’s website.

To purchase concert tickets, go to www.folkartmuseum.org

or contact Ms. Katie Hush 212.977.7170 x 308 or khush@folkartmuseum.org.

The American Folk Art Museum is home to the largest public repository of works by Henry Darger and the nation’s premier institution dedicated to the work of contemporary self-taught artists as well as traditional folk artists. An accomplished and prolific writer and artist, Darger created a fantasy world through his manuscripts and illustrations and is today considered one of the notable masters of the twentieth century.  The American Folk Art Museum is also celebrating Henry Darger’s birthday with the exhibition “The Private Collection of Henry Darger” on view through 19 September 2010.

About Patti Smith:

Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary mergence of poetry and rock. Her seminal album Horses, bearing Robert Mapplethorpe’s renowned portrait, has been hailed as one of the top 100 albums of all time. She has recorded twelve albums. Her books include Witt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, and Auguries of Innocence.  Most recently she published the New York Times bestseller, Just Kids, a biography of her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith had her first exhibit of drawings at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973 and has been represented by the Robert Miller Gallery since 1978. In 2002, the Andy Warhol Museum launched “Strange Messenger”, a retrospective exhibit of her drawings, silk screens, and photographs. Her drawings, photographs, and installations were shown in a comprehensive exhibit in 2008 at the Foundation Cartier Pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris.  In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Smith the prestigious title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor awarded to an artist by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll H[2]all of Fame in 2007.

About Caroline Jones:

Caroline Jones is a New York based singer/songwriter. Trained classically in opera at The Singer’s Forum, she started out at age nine singing various show tunes and arias. Caroline fell in love with the art of songwriting soon after, and began recording demos at age eleven. Since then, she has performed at Birdland, the Columbus Club, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Juilliard, New World Stages and Canisius College and made frequent songwriting trips to Nashville. Recently, Caroline has been writing and recording a country-pop album while continuing performances in the New York area at venues such as the Bitter End, Arlene’s Grocery, Bowery Wine Company, and the Living Room. She is very grateful for this opportunity, and honored to be singing at this event.

About Henry Darger:

Henry Darger (1892–1973), an American artist from Chicago, created a fantasy world through his writings and scroll-like paintings and is considered one of the most notable artists of the twentieth century. Since his death in 1973 and the discovery of his massive opus, he is now seen as an American cultural icon. Darger created nearly 300 watercolors and collage paintings to illustrate his 15,000 page masterpiece, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is known as the Realms of the Unreal. The drawings accompanying his epic tale reveal provocative images of little girls, violence and conflict. The Museum recently celebrated Darger’s birthday with the opening of the exhibition “The Private Collection of Henry Darger,” which will be on view through September 19, 2010.

About the America Folk Art Museum (AFAM):

The American Folk Art Museum, founded in 1961, is the foremost institution devoted to the collection, exhibition, study, and preservation of folk art. Through the presentation of innovative exhibitions, educational programs, and scholarly publications, the museum explores the nation's diverse cultural heritage and related global expressions. It is home to one of the world's preeminent collections of folk art dating from the 18th century to the present day, including soaring weathervanes, dazzling quilts, handsome portraits, and exuberantly painted furniture as well as mythic watercolors and idiosyncratic drawings, paintings, and sculptures by contemporary self-taught artists from the U.S and abroad.                               

The Museum's 30,000 square foot award winning building on West 53 Street in New York, with its unique bronze-alloy facade, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, opened to great critical and public acclaim in 2001.

In addition to imaginative displays of its distinguished permanent collection and provocative changing exhibitions, the Museum provides diverse educational programs for adults, children, teachers, families, and community organizations.  It serves as a major source of information and scholarship: the museum publishes numerous exhibition catalogs, maintains a research library of over 10,000 volumes, and offers scholarly symposia.  The Museum Book and Gift Shop is renowned for its extensive selection of books on folk art and decorative arts and one-of-a-kind gift items created by more than 200 American crafts people.

The stunning American Folk Art Museum is the place to experience the masterworks of Henry Darger. The Museum's collection—the single largest public repository in the world—includes over twenty-six paintings by Darger as well as the complete manuscripts and typescripts of his vast literary works and his personal archive of correspondence, diaries, sketches, studies, journals and books.  Always on view is a rotating selection of Henry Darger's amazing artwork. For further information about the American Folk Art Museum visit: www.folkartmuseum.org