Atlanta Fine Rugs and Antiques, Atlanta, Ga.

Photos Courtesy of Dolphin Fairs

CHICAGO – The second annual Chicago Antiques + Art + Design Show, featuring 80 national and international exhibitors presenting antique furniture, decorative and fine arts from the Seventeenth through the Twentieth Centuries, returned to the Merchandise Mart’s 7th floor May 18-20. The opening night party, hosted by the Woman’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, offered a preview of the show on the evening of May 17, giving more than 375 guests a chance to shop exhibitors, such as M.S. Rau from New Orleans, Trinity House Paintings from London and Greg Pepin Silver from Copenhagen, prior to the show’s public opening.

The party’s décor and cuisine (expertly executed by George Jewell Catering), was themed around health and vitality. Planned by local co-chairs Meredith Wood-Prince, Jenny McKinney and Elissa Kovas, the event received an infusion of creative energy from its design chairs, LA-based interior designer Ruthie Sommers and New York’s Nick Olsen. Party highlights included a room vignette designed by Sommers, featuring a mural-style wallpaper from Schumacher and a green wall blooming with white spirea and peonies designed by Molly Flavin.

The board raised more than $200,000 from the event to benefit programs and patient care initiatives it supports, including a recent major commitment to fund the study of collaborative mental health care in Northwestern’s primary care clinics in Chicago.

Notable exhibitors included Trinity House Paintings from London, New York and the Cotswolds; Rehs Galleries from New York; Greg Pepin Silver from Copenhagen, Denmark; M.S. Rau Antiques from New Orleans; Greenwald Antiques from Cleveland; Ophir Gallery from Englewood, N.J.; Guarasco Gallery from Washington, DC; Nally Jewels from New York; Imperial Fine Books and Oriental Art from New York; and new exhibitor Martine Boston Antiques from Limerick, Ireland. From the Chicago area, the show featured Galerie Fledermaus, Lee’s Antiques (Winnetka), F.L. Braswell Fine Art, and Classic Antiques, among many others.

The day following the preview, keynote speakers Sommers and Olsen joined forces, participating together in a lecture on the first floor of the Merchandise Mart. Following the keynote address, an afternoon lecture series sponsored by AIA Chicago, “Monogram and Pella” was presented in the Pella Crafted Luxury showroom, featuring noted Chicago architect Gunny Harboe discussing the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park, followed by Catherine Shotick, curator at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, presenting “The Art of Seating: 200 Years of Chair Design.”

“The show was really awesome, and we’re so excited that our new beneficiary, the Woman’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, raised more than $200,000 from the preview party they hosted,” said Gordon Merkle, Dolphin’s Fairs media director. “Looking forward to next year show dates are May 17-19, with preview party on Thursday evening, May 16.

For additional information, www.chicagoantiquesartdesign.com or 954-202-1955 or www.dolphinfairs.com.