Pioneers of Change

date: September 11th – 20th 2009
location: Governors Island, New York

With over 25.000 visitors, Pioneers of Change, a festival of Dutch design, fashion and architecture on New York’s Governors Island as part of the NY400 celebrations, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Dutch to New York has been well attended. Conceived and curated by Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog.

Visitors were tickled by a robot, they repaired broken chairs and moth-eaten sweaters, chewed and swallowed very slowly, watched real time pass by, and filled their backpacks and purses with Dutch design ware all under $100.

All this and more took place in eleven former commanding officers’ houses in Nolan Park transformed by Dutch designers, artists and architects in collaboration with elderly New Yorkers, local students and the public.

Participants included 2012Architecten, Atelier NL, Maarten Baas, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, Franck Bragigand, Droog with Marije Vogelzang, Herman Verkerk, Rianne Makkink and Hansje van Halem, Experimental Jetset, Pascale Gatzen, Christien Meindertsma, MVRDV and The Why Factory with Work Architecture Company, Painted, Driessens & Verstappen, Arthur Elsenaar & Taconis Stolk, Parsons The New School for Design, Platform21 and Marcel Schmalgemeijer.
 

Pioneers of Change was initiated by Han Bakker under the authority of NY400, the result of an initiative by the Dutch Government in close co-operation with Dutch local and provincial authorities, with New York City and New York State, and with active participation of a great number of organizations from the private, cultural and not-for-profit sectors.
www.ny400.org

Pioneers of Change is supported by the Dutch Design Fashion Architecture programme, which aims to strengthen the international position of these sectors through a joined-up approach.
www.dutchdfa.nl

Graphic design and website by Experimental Jetset.
www.experimentaljetset.nl

Production:
Stichting Droog Design / www.droog.com,
Droog New York / www.droogusa.com,
Formavision / www.formavision.info

Sponsored by the Premsela foundation, Fine paints of Europe, Wijzonol, Lensvelt, NgispeN, Ketel One.

twitter @droogamsterdam @rennydroog

url: www.pioneersofchange.com