The Orange Alert: Dutch Design in New York event serves as the official launch of this landmark year of Dutch design activity. Exciting exhibitions, including the world’s leading designers such as Viktor and Rolf, Hella Jongerius and Droog Design as well as a collective of new Dutch fashion designers, will exemplify the best of Dutch design within fashion, art, interiors and architecture. For the first time, all the participating venues are joining together with one goal: to celebrate the work and creative process of talented Dutch artists.

“This is going to be a banner year for Dutch designers and the Consulate is very proud of the efforts to position the designers here in the US,” says Robert Kloos, Director for Visual Arts, Architecture and Design. “Orange Alert: Dutch Design in New York is the culmination of years of work in an effort to nurture and support Dutch designers outside European borders.”

Highlights of Dutch design in the U.S. over the past ten years include the highly successful Dutch Design Cafe at MoMA, Dutch Design survey exhibitions at New York and San Francisco MoMA, exhibitions by Viktor & Rolf with Visionaire, Marcel Wanders at Material Connexion, Hella Jongerius and Jurgen Bey at ICA Philadelphia as well as a U.S. tour of Droog Design.

Venerable design expert Aaron Betsky, author of the recent publication "False Flat: Why Dutch Design Is So Good” refers to The Netherlands as being "the world's center of great modern design." Nowhere else is there as much innovation, experimentation and sheer beauty in architecture, urban planning, industrial design, and graphic design as in this small country."

During the Orange Alert on January 18, multimedia presentations will showcase a wide array of leading Dutch designers. A separate fashion presentation will occupy one area of Drive-In Studios promoting a group of Dutch fashion designers that will launch officially during Olympus Fashion Week in September.

Orange Alert is supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands Ministry of Culture, Boudewijn J. van Eenennaam, Netherlands Ambassador to the U.S. and Cora Minderhoud, Consul General in New York. Surface* Magazine is the key media sponsor for Orange Alert and the event is also proudly sponsored by Damrak Gin, Heineken, Coolamsterdam.com and Rootstein, Inc.

About The Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York:
The Consulate serves as an intermediary between the Dutch and American art worlds. Its goal is to stimulate Dutch art and artists in the United States and to encourage and facilitate cultural cooperation and exchange in the fields of architecture, dance, design, film, heritage, literature, music, new media, photography and the visual arts.

.Highlights include:
• Tord Boontje at Moss (February)
• Hella Jongerius at Cooper-Hewitt (March)
• A series of fashion events with the Dutch Fashion
Foundation (Fashion Week)
• Interior and product design installations during the ICFF and Design Downtown (May)
• Pulp: young dutch graduates from the Design Academy Eindhoven express themselves in paper and cardboard at The Firehouse (May)
• Exhibition of Dutch Fashion & Textile Design at the Museum at F.I.T. (September)
• Tord Boontje at Cooper-Hewitt (September)
• Colors: Viktor & Rolf exhibition from the Mori Art Museum at Cooper-Hewitt (December)
• Claudy Jongstra at Moss (t.b.d.)
• Simply Droog at Museum of Arts & Design (t.b.d.)

Tuesday, January 18, 2005
6:30-8:30 pm

Drive-In Studios
443 W. 18th Street
Between 9th & 10th Avenue
New York City