Museum's Design Show to Feature Local Talent

On Friday evening, promises to banish the northerly winds and grey mists once and for all when it hosts a for the third annual .

The Museum’s Honorary Chairwoman Jenny Johnson of New England Cable News and a bevy of acclaimed designers will join partygoers in celebrating the launch of the weeklong event, which is the largest fundraiser of the year for the museum.

Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served and guests will be the first to glimpse the vignettes created by each designer to “honor the museum’s mission celebrating the history and culture of Boston’s North Shore, and the artifacts of childhood and New England family life,” according to the museum’s Marketing Director Mary Barthelmes.

The dual purpose of the show is to shine a light on many of the area’s top designers and to raise money to benefit the museum.

Barthelmes said on Thursday that several of the exhibitors were hard at work readying the show. Admittedly tired - although clearly excited about her involvement - Elissa Della-Piana of took time to discuss her display.

“My theme is a Roman folly garden at the Crane Estate of Ipswich,” she said before going on to describe with a broad brush stroke what it will include; “a collection of faux food, my own drawings of the faux roman statues that line the Castle’s ‘Grand Allee’ and drawings by my uncle Raphael Della-Piana, executed in the 1930s when he was a student of fine art.”

Camille Garro of Camille Garro Interiors paused in her preparation to say that the concept behind her ‘Pretty in Poppy Studio Suite’ is to present an up-and-coming clothing designer’s studio, to “transform the 8-by-12 foot space into a (designer’s) work in progress.”

Speaking of the importance of color, Garro said, “The fashion forward is bright color.” And acting on this, Garro has chosen to feature the Sherwin Williams reddish-orange hue ‘Gladiola’ in her cheerful vignette.

For his part, furniture designer Sebastian Carpenter has opted to create a ‘Reading Nook’ for this year’s North Shore Design Show. Carpenter, who grew up in Hamilton and Wenham and specializes in made to order modern designs inspired by Art Deco and the aesthetic of Frank Lloyd Wright, Eileen Gray and others, will miss the opening gala. Unable to be in two places at once he will instead be attending the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York.

Gracyn Whitman exudes focused passion and pride when talking about her collaboration with Wenham-based Marshall-Whitman Design business partner Kathy Marshall. Their concept, she explained, is a "seaside teahouse." Reusing their signature barn built of reclaimed lumber, they have set out to capture the feeling of the North Shore by drawing off of elements and colors found at places such as Crane Beach, the and the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary.

The North Shore Design Show to benefit the Wenham Museum runs May 14-22 with daily hours 10 a.m.–4 p.m. daily. It is closed Monday.

Tickets cost $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Tickets for the Gala Party are $75 and can be purchased in advance only. Tickets can be ordered by phone at 978-468-2377 or online at Wenham Museum's website.