Art and Antiques Returns to The War Memorial for a Four Day Show Filled with World-Class Designers, Collectors, and Dealers

The War Memorial will host its annual Art & Antiques show from November 1 through November 4, 2018. The event moves into its second year as The War Memorial’s fall fundraiser, adopted last year from Christ Church Grosse Pointe. Hosted in the historic Alger estate, proceeds from the event will support the preservation and restoration of the historic mansion, as well as The War Memorial’s Patriot Initiative Fund. Mary Kay and Keith Crain of Crain’s Detroit Business will act as this year’s Honorary Co-Chairs.

Held over four days, the show features a series of events with something for any varietal of art and décor lover. The show opens with a preview party on Thursday, November 1. Artfest: An Evening at the Alger will be held on Saturday, November 3 and will include a fall-themed celebration on The War Memorial’s lakefront lawn. The show will be open for general admission between these two premier events and will continue through Sunday, November 4.

“The War Memorial strives to stay true to its mission of being a patriotic, cultural, and community leader,” said War Memorial President and CEO, Charles Burke. “The proceeds from Art & Antiques will help us maintain the integrity and beauty of the historic estate, as well as increasing our ability to honor, support, and recognize veterans and their families through our Patriot Initiative Fund.”

In addition to general admission and the two main evening events, the show will feature lectures from both nationally and regionally known speakers: Architect Gil Schafer, Curator of American Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, Kenneth J. Myers, and Grosse Pointe resident and lifelong collector, John Booth.

General admission tickets are priced at $20 per person and include admission to both John Booth’s and Kenneth Myers’s presentations, which will be held on Friday, November 2. Tickets to attend Gil Schafer’s lecture are $35 and include admission to Saturday’s show.

“We are ecstatic about the lineup of presenters we have for this year’s event,” said Beverly Curtiss Walsh, Art & Antiques Benefit Co-Chair. “The level of historical knowledge and design expertise that these three gentlemen bring to our show is awe-inspiring, and sure to help elevate Art & Antiques at The War Memorial to become a nationally-known show in years to come!”

Those wishing to have a more intimate experience with Gil Schafer can purchase tickets to attend a luncheon with the renowned architect at The Grosse Pointe Club. The luncheon will take place prior to Saturday’s presentation. Tickets are priced at $75 and include lunch, as well as admission to Schafer’s lecture and the show. Copies of Schafer’s best-selling books, The Great American House and A Place to Call Home will be available for purchase, and the author will personally sign each.

The antiques show itself will include almost two dozen dealers from across the country professionally displaying their items in the historic Alger House and ballroom. The event, which is open to the public, hopes to draw in both seasoned collectors as well as those interested in learning how to utilize fine art and artifacts when decorating their home or space.

“People are discovering that grounding a room with an antique item, despite how modern the room may be, imbues the space with a special grandeur,” said Scottie Knight, Art & Antique Publicity Committee Chair. “With this show, we hope to bring guests through the beautiful historic Alger House, expand their design palate, and, ultimately raise funds to support the preservation of our estate, and our mission-centric veterans’ causes.”

For more information including ticket levels and sponsorship or to purchase tickets, visit www.warmemorial.org/artandantiques or call 313.332.4075.

The War Memorial is located at 32 Lake Shore Drive in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. The institution is a 501(c)(3) organization and receives no local, state, or federal funding.

Complete Listing of Art & Antiques Programming

Preview Party
Thursday, November 1
6 to 10pm

ArtFest: An Evening at the Alger
Saturday, November 3
7 to 11pm

General Admission
Friday, November 2 and Saturday, November 3
10am to 5pm
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Noon to 5pm

Speaker Series
Friday, November 2
11am
The Joy of Collecting: The Why and How of Collecting, a personal Story.
John Booth, lifelong collector

Friday, November 2
2pm
Making the DIA’s Great Collection of American Art Even Greater: Recent Acquisitions of American Art from 2013 to 2018
Kenneth J. Myers, DIA Chief Curator of American Art

Saturday, November 3
2pm
Creating Places to Call Home: How Tradition, Style, and Memory Inspire Ways of Living
Gil Schafer III, AIA

Ticket Pricing
Patron Ticket: $250
Friend Ticket: $175
Lunch with Gil Schafer: $75
Gil Schafer Presentation and Admission to Show: $35
General Admission to Show and Friday Lectures: $20

Speaker Series

About Gil Schafer III

Award-winning architect Gil Schafer III, AIA has focused his career on residential projects for more than 25 years. Prior to establishing G.P. Schafer Architect, PLLC in 2002, Gil worked in several distinguished traditional residential architecture practices including Ferguson Murrary & Shamamian Architects, where he remained for nearly a decade and worked on large scale projects around the country. Over the last twenty years, Gil’s work has involved him in projects in numerous and various locations around the country and in scales ranging from under 1,000 square feet to nearly 40,000 square feet.

The grandson and great-great- grandson of architects, Gil grew up with a strong sense of how a well-built, thoughtfully designed home can bring pleasure to daily life. Over the course of his childhood, he was fortunate to be exposed to life in a variety of places, including the Midwest, the Northeast, Georgia, California and the Bahamas, each contributing to his sense of what makes places unique and how architectural traditions and lifestyle are influenced by context.

In addition to his architectural practice, Gil lectures around the country on the relevance and livability of traditional residential architecture today and is the author of the bestselling book, The Great American House. He is a member of Architectural Digest’s AD 100 and winner of Veranda’s Art of Design Award. His work and the firm’s projects have been widely published both here in the U.S and abroad in both magazines and newspapers, including Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, House Beautiful, Veranda, Town & Country, Country Life, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among many others.

About Kenneth J. Meyers

Since joining the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2005, Kenneth Myers has served as curator of American art and Head of the American Art department. He came to the DIA from the Smithsonian Institution, where he was curator of American art at the Freer Gallery of Art. At the Freer, he organized numerous exhibitions focusing on the work of James McNeill Whistler, co-curated the exhibition Mr. Whistler's Galleries: Avant-Garde in Victorian London, and wrote the related book, Mr. Whistler's Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition (2003).

From 1985 to 1995, Myers taught at Middlebury College, during which time he wrote the catalog and organized the path-breaking exhibition The Catskills: Painters, Writers, and Tourists in the Mountains, 1820-1895 (1988). After leaving Middlebury, Myers served as assistant director for Research and Publications at the New Jersey Historical Society before joining the Freer Gallery of Art in 1999.

Myers received his Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University, and his doctorate from Yale University. A cultural historian specializing in American landscape painting and the history of arts patronage, Myers is the author of numerous articles including "Frederic Church's Memorials to Thomas Cole" (2008), “Thomas Cole and the Popularization of Landscape Experience in the United States: 1825-1829” (2007), “Art and Commerce in Jacksonian America: The Steamboat Albany Collection (2000), and "On the Cultural Construction of Landscape Experience: Contact to 1830" (1993). Among many awards, Myers has received major fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

At the DIA, Myers led the team that planned the widely praised reinstallation of the museum's esteemed collection of American art. He is currently completing several scholarly essays and organizing a major traveling exhibition tentatively titled Frederic Church: To the Holy Land and Beyond.

About John Booth

John Booth attended both Yale University, with a B.A. in History, and the University of Michigan Law School with a Juris Doctorate. He is an avid lifelong collector as evidenced by his involvement in collecting activities both past and present.

Mr. Booth has had membership in Jared Elliot’s (Undergraduate) Book Collecting Club, The Beinecke Rare Book Library, Yale University, and is the Co-Founder of the Connoisseurship Course, Founders Junior Council, D.I.A. John is Vice Chairman of D.I.A. Joint Museum Collections and Acquisitions Committee and President of the Detroit Historical Commission. He is a Trustee at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, a member of the Cranbrook Educational Community Collections Committee, and John is a member of the Board of Associates, The William Clements Library, University of Michigan. Mr. Booth is also is member of the Furniture History Society, United Kingdom.

John Booth will be presenting The Joy of Collecting: The Why and How of Collecting, a personal Story.

About The War Memorial

The War Memorial, located on the shores of Lake Saint Clair in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, is a legacy-filled institution with a reenergized determination to emerge as a regional driver of arts, learning, patriotism, hospitality and connectivity. Situated on the grounds of the historic Alger Estate, The War Memorial serves an estimated 250,000 individuals with over 3,000 functions annually, including programs to honor veterans, engagement experiences for adults and children, community events and celebrations, and premier hospitality services. With new programming and innovative leadership, The War Memorial is a unique, dynamic and forward-thinking hub for southeast Michigan with a mission to be a patriotic, cultural, and community leader.

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