The Everson Commissions Derek Porter to Transform Challenging Space in Iconic Building
Syracuse, NY (September 29, 2021): In early 2022, the Everson will embark on a significant upgrade to a challenging area of its building. The Everson has commissioned artist and architectural lighting designer Derek Porter to create an installation titled, Faceted Wrap. The installation will transform the Everson’s dim and nondescript Kilburg Family Staircase into a brilliant, light-filled space.
“It may not seem it, but this is an incredibly important space in the Museum,” explains Everson Director Elizabeth Dunbar. “It connects visitors to all of the treasures on our lower level, including our renowned ceramics gallery, our recently renovated auditorium, and our vibrant education center.”
Porter’s design concept rises to the many visitor challenges in this particular corner of the Museum while creating an attraction on par with the Everson’s iconic spiral staircase. Its intention is to invite visitors to explore an entire level of the Museum that is often overlooked, but completes the overall visitor experience.
A description provided by Porter states: Faceted Wrap is composed of thousands of individually-oriented mirrored reflectors that capture isolated moments of the surrounding scene and fragment them into abstracted pixels of color and light, collapsing recognizable relationships of the interior and human movement into a provocative kaleidoscope of dynamic pattern. It recontextualizes the familiar, giving the viewer a new awareness of place.
With necessary structural renovations, the entire project is estimated to cost $100,000, of which $62,000 has been raised so far. The Everson is now seeking additional support to secure the balance of the funds needed to complete the project. For more information, visit everson.org/faceted-wrap.
About the Everson Museum of Art
The Everson is a museum of firsts. It was the first museum to dedicate itself to the collection of American art, to create a permanent collection of ceramics, to collect video art, to create a docent program and to hire the now internationally-known architect I.M. Pei to design its building, a sculptural work of art in its own right. Located in Syracuse, NY, the Everson is home to over 10,000 works of art: American paintings, sculpture, drawings, video, graphics and one of the largest holdings of international ceramics in the nation. Visit everson.org to learn more.
About Derek Porter Studio
Derek Porter Studio is a multi-disciplinary design firm with locations in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Our primary work focuses on architectural lighting design – the incorporation of light within urban, architectural and spatial contexts – while also crossing into parallel fields of product design and fine art. All of our work explores common interests in human perception, luminance composition, material relationships and phenomenal transition of time.
