Palm Springs is now abuzz with Modernism Week.
Visitors have until Feb. 21 to visit over 70 events — from the Frank Sinatra’s Neighborhood Movie Colony Historical Walking Tours to the Illuminated Modern Sunset Bus Tour.
Festivities for the week include a VIP reception and book signing for the “iconic iconoclast” Vladimir Kagan, an American furniture designer (his celebrity clientele included Marilyn Monroe and Xaviar Cugat) that many will know for his furniture for the Monsanto Home of the Future at Disneyland. He is among a long list of rock star-status architects, designers and artists who brought a breath of fresh air and refreshing drama to American design.
In Palm Springs, the mood is captured at this annual event that now draws thousands to the desert from Feb. 11-21.
For those who have any recollection of “American Bandstand,” The Four Freshmen band, or the movies “Beach Blanket Bingo” and “Palm Springs Weekend,” that era will ring a bell. Modernism Week features over 250 scheduled events. Some events are free while others charge a fee, including “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?”— a night at the Loewe Estate on Feb. 21. During this event, you can walk in the steps of Austrian-American composer Frederick Loewe who collaborated with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and is remembered for the long-running musicals “My Fair Lady” and “Camelot.”
This year’s edition of Modernism Week kicked off with two events, both staged at the Palm Springs Convention Center: the opening of the 16th annual Modernism Show & Sale and the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair.
Eighty-five national and international decorative and fine arts dealers presented post-war design movements of the 20th century at the fair. Over 70 art galleries were represented, including Skidmore Contemporary Art Gallery and galleries from Maracaibo, Venezuela, Cordoba, Argentina and London.
Collectors and art mavens alike said they were in paradise. Palm Springs residents Dan and Reggie McGrath, Frank Tysen, Therese Hayes, and mutual friend Marilyn Sue Will all agreed that this was an eclectic art moment and a highlight of the desert social season, which is now in full swing.
Throughout Modernism Week, the Premier Double Decker Architectural Tour Bus Tours have been predictably popular with six daily departures from the Modernism command post MW CAMP.
Coming up this weekend is the Vintage Travel Trailer Show at the Hilton Palm Springs parking lot on Feb. 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Christopher Kennedy Show House Wrap Party and Polynesian Luau will also take place on Sunday at the Toucans Tiki Lounge from 6-9 p.m. That event is free.
The verve and spirit of modernism magic thrives in Palm Springs, where the sun shines high all winter long and nostalgia truly is a blast to the past.
For a list of events and more information, visit modernismweek.com.
Pamela Price blogs at forbes.com.