The Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE Local 800) is celebrating its 75th anniversary with numerous high-profile special events planned throughout the year. These events will include exhibitions, screenings, receptions, panel discussions, proclamations and celebrations to be announced. The Guild was established in 1937. The 2,000 members of the ADG and special guests will be invited to all celebratory events.
The year’s celebrations open with the Guild’s participation in the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival to be held at the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio April 21-22. The Guild will have a “store-front” on the ranch’s Main Street with an exhibition titled “The Artistry of Making a Cowboy Movie,” featuring members’ work from classic motion picture and television westerns including Silverado, The Lone Ranger, Deadwood, Wild Bill and Gunsmoke. For more information: Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival
A reception celebrating the publication of the coffee table book M-G-M: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot (Santa Monica Press) is scheduled for May 10 at the Guild’s Robert Boyle Studio 800. The three authors, Steve Bingen, Stephen X. Sylvester and Michael Troyan, will discuss the history of the fabled M-G-M Studio from its triumphant beginning to its tragic end.
It was at this studio that legendary Art Director Cedric Gibbons and his associates had more than 140 acres of sound stages and backlot sets at their disposal. During his 32-year career the studio received 11 Oscars® and an additional 28 nominations. For more information: MGM Backlot Book Event
Hollywood Museum Reception
On the actual anniversary of the adoption of the Guild’s bylaws, June 2, a reception will be held at the Hollywood Museum in the historic Max Factor building at Hollywood and Highland. The museum will have on display a retrospective celebrating 75 years of art direction with movie and television sets from prominent production designers on display. Civic dignitaries and leaders in the motion picture and television industries are being invited. For information: ADG 75th Anniversary Party
A retrospective of the paintings and illustrations of legendary Production Designer Robert Boyle (Oscar® nominations include North By Northwest, Fiddler on the Roof, The Shootist) is to be shown at the Guild’s Gallery 800 in North Hollywood with an opening reception on July 28. Work from his close friend Boris Leven (Oscar® for West Side Story, nominated for The Sound of Music) will also be on display.
The ADG will present a series of films representing 75 years of production design from May through October in association with the American Cinematheque and sponsored by the Hollywood Reporter.
Tom Walsh, president of the Art Directors Guild, said, “Though our members have separate job titles and roles within the art department, we all work in close collaboration with one another in our service to the profession of art direction for the moving image; contributing that unique ability of being able to look at nothing and see everything—all the possibilities and visual potential within the story. And it is not only feature and episodic productions that we do, but all manner of commercials, web-media, theme park, exhibition and digital game design. In a much broader sense our members are in the business of world building.
“Technologies will continue to evolve, but it is those most human virtues of an intuitive nature, unceasing curiosity, passion and imagination that remain our members’ most valued contribution to the narrative journey, and to the meeting of the challenge of making the impossible possible.”
About the Art Directors Guild
The Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800) represents nearly 2,000 members who work throughout the United States, Canada and the rest of the world in film, television and theater as Production Designers, Art Directors, and Assistant Art Directors; Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists; Illustrators and Matte Artists; Set Designers and Model Makers and Previs Artists. ADG’s ongoing activities include a Film Society; an annual Awards Banquet, a creative/technology community (5D: The Future of Immersive Design) and Membership Directory; a bimonthly craft magazine (Perspective); and extensive technology-training programs, creative workshops and craft and art exhibitions. The Guild’s Online Directory/Website Resource is at www.adg.org.
