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Welcome to the Ard-Knox Insurance Blog.

We will bring you Art related and Art Insurance related news and information we believe is of interest to our clients and friends.

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Monday, April 9, 2012

Dallas Art Fair!

dallas art fair large

DALLAS ART FAIR

Over 75 prominent national and international art dealers and galleries will exhibit paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photography, video and installation by modern and contemporary artists at the third annual Dallas Art Fair located in the revitalized downtown Arts District.

The Dallas Art Fair is located inside FIG (Fashion Industry Gallery)
1807 Ross Avenue, Dallas, TX 75201 

Come by our booth at the Dallas Art Fair this weekend (April 13-15) and say hello!


We are co-sponsoring a panel discussion on Friday afternoon at 5:00pm.
 
 Art Smart: Knowing and Protecting the Value of Your Collection, presented by James Ard of Ard-Knox Insurance and Jamie K. Baker of Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, L.L.P.
5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.   Beck Imaginarium, 5th Floor
A moderated panel of business experts will share a wealth of knowledge to help collectors, galleries, and museums protect their art investments. Insider information on appraisal, shipping, and insurance issues with practical pointers for art collectors at every level.

 Below is the link for the Fair schedule.


 We Look forward to seeing you this weekend!


James & Wayne

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Recycle Runway Lands in the Atlanta Airport

Recycle Runway Lands in the Atlanta Airport! Published: 05.10.2011 at 11:20 am by Nancy Judd

Recycle Runway Exhibition in the Atlanta Airport
The dust has settled from my two week adventure in Atlanta installing the Recycle Runway exhibition, “waste does not exist, only wasted resources.” I have returned, finished up some minor details and gotten some well needed rest.
After three years of preparations, eighteen of my recycled fashion designs are now on display in nine cases throughout International Concourse E. To access Concourse E take the “Plane Train” (AKA the Concourse Shuttle) or just walk from any one of the concourses or the main terminal. (Note to Atlanta residents: Concourse E is on the secure side of the airport, so you will need a ticket to get there.)
I started the first week with a presentation on resources to some students at the International School in Atlanta sponsored by Novelis. Whenever I go somewhere to install an exhibition or make a new garment I like to give school presentations and working with kids is always a thrill – their minds are so fresh and innovative I always end up learning from them.
Introducing the Environmental Steward-ess to my sponsors, Frank and Aaron from Delta Air Lines!
On Wednesday we held a big launch party for my show at a sustainable furniture company called “Environment”. I had arranged a number of my garments, including Delta’s new Environmental Steward-ess, amid the furniture made from reclaimed, recycled, and sustainably harvested wood, so all night guests were weaving in and out of the display – truly a visually interesting mix! Approximately 50 people turned up including the press, some of my sponsors, local designers and artists, community environmental activists and even a few friends. But the best part of all was finally meeting some of the people that are sponsoring this exhibition and supporting my work.
I spent the rest of first week meeting Katherine and David from the Airport Art program, settling preliminaries like which size and style of pedestals to use in the airport art cases, and returning in the evenings to my vacation rental to prepare and eat the chard I had smuggled on the plane. For those of you who are interested, chard travels well.
Transporting the Dresses Through the Concourse
I had no idea what I had really signed up for in the second week when we finally began installing the show! Nothing can prepare you for working in an airport. It is so very different from being in one for travel only. You really have no idea how dazed people are in new, large and busy surroundings, trying to keep track of their luggage and keep their families together. I felt as though I got a fresh peek at what I must look like traveling thither and yon.
I had agreed to do the installation between 7 PM and 4 AM so we came in for work while the airport was still hopping and within the next couple of hours would begin winding down for the day. Yes, the
Floor Polishing Equipment
Floor Polishing Equipment
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport actually closes down somewhere between 11 and midnight and the empty halls begin to fill will all kinds of cleaning apparatus and work relations banter. Imagine the number of night staff you have to have to maintain the busiest airport in the world!
Inside the halls of Concourse E Katherine and David trekked vast distances from case to case, applying vinyl lettering and information placards while I and the fourth member of our team, Nicole, spent hours and hours locked in a windowless room filled with my dress forms and garments and a wide variety of other art installation materials. It began to get a little surreal as I unboxed the pieces and prepped the garments for their “in case” debut but I was eventually grateful that I couldn’t really tell what time it was and I was so busy I didn’t care. Our little team was actually fighting to get the installation done within the time we were given – 3 nights.
David and Katherine Applying the Vinyl Exhibition Titles
Applying the Vinyl Exhibition Titles
The amazing and very sweet compliments of the night staff kept us going as we pushed dollies full of dresses throughout the concourse. Bleary eyed we’d exit every morning at 5 AM heading back home to sleep, eat and take a nap before doing it all over again. We squeezed every last minute out of our allotted time and in the end everything just fell together. It was a truly inspiring piece of team work and I am so thankful to all those that helped!
This exhibition would not be possible without the support of my case sponsors: Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Janome, and Novelis and my Green Partners: Earth911.com, the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Georgia Recycling Coalition, Keep America Beautiful, Keep Georgia Beautiful, the Phoenix Airport Museum and the Turner Foundation. And of coarse thank you to my host, Atlanta’s Airport Art Program! It is such an honor to be part of their impressive group of permanent and rotating art exhibitions! If you have been through this airport before you are sure to have noticed all the great art…my favorite of the permanent collections are the Zimbabwe sculptures in the walkway between Concourse T and A.
Thus far the exhibition has received great press, in the last couple of weeks articles have appeared on the front pages of cnn.com and yahoo.com. I have received so many encouraging e-mails from all over the world!
Well, as mentioned, I did have a few details to iron out when I got home. There is a short video presentation on the show and my work that CNN will run throughout the airport for the entire year the pieces are on display but we have had a hard time finding the requested digibeta tape. RESOURCE RE-THOUGHT Number 1 – The terrible earthquake and tsunami from March 11 that devastated Japan has also taken its toll on many of the electronic resources for the entire world. The reason that the digibeta tape has been so hard to get is that most of the manufacturing of these tapes is done in Japan. Where do your resources come from?

Monday, May 9, 2011

Flood Insurance - Affordable and Needed

Flood Season is on us!

According to the National Weather Service, Americans live in one of the most severe weather-prone countries on Earth. Each year Americans cope with an average of 10,000 thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, 1,000 tornadoes, and an average of 2 land-falling deadly hurricanes. And this is on top of winter storms, spring snow melting and intense summer heat, high winds, wild fires and other deadly weather impacts.


The Colorado State University's (CSU) Tropical Meteorology Project has issued their April forecast which calls for a busy 2011 season. The CSU team is predicting approximately 16 named storms, 9 hurricanes, 5 of which will be "major" hurricanes of category 3 or higher. Colorado State University hurricane researchers Philip Klotzbach and William Gray anticipate “an above-average probability of United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall.” Klotzbach and Gray report that “The probability of U.S. major hurricane landfall is estimated to be about 140% of the long-period average.”


Springtime is a visible reminder that floods are the most common natural disaster in the U.S. – and one of the most expensive. With warming temperatures, spring rainfall, and the 2011 hurricane season looming not far behind, now is the time to talk about flood insurance.


You are at risk for flooding no matter where you live. Just a few inches of water in a home can cause thousands of dollars of damage. Flooding happens every day in all regions of the country. One way to help stay protected from floods is by making sure you have flood insurance.


Flood Insurance is easy. The cost is reasonable, in most areas, and flood insurance is available to homeowners, renters and businesses. There is even a lower cost flood policy known as the Preferred Risk Policy (PRP) designed for properties that meet certain criteria and are located outside a Special Flood Hazard Area. The PRP policy has lower rates because it covers structures that are in low- to moderate-risk areas.


There is a standard 30 day waiting period for a flood insurance policy to go into effect. So now is the time to start buying flood insurance to help protect yourself from heavy spring rains and before the start of the hurricane season.

For more information contact James Ard at james@ardknoxinsurance.com .

Thursday, April 28, 2011

New Gallery Opening


NEW YORK, NY.- The ArtQuilt Gallery•NYC opened April 5, becoming the only commercial gallery for quilts in New York City, filling a void in the nation’s art center. Located in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, next to The City Quilter, the gallery showcases the best quilts from around the world.

Cathy Izzo and Dale Riehl, co-owners of The City Quilter – the area’s leading quilting supply store – said they have dreamed for years of seeing such a gallery in New York and finally decided to stop waiting for someone else to open one. “As 30-year residents we’ve long lamented the fact that the art world hasn’t given quilting its due as an art form,” said Izzo. “We believe our gallery will serve a need, showcasing the extraordinary range of quilt art and demonstrating how compelling quilts can be.”

“The Chelsea area alone has scores of galleries displaying paintings and sculpture,” noted Riehl. “We intend to show that outstanding quilts can hold their own with any other art.”

Though adjoining The City Quilter on West 25th Street, a gathering point for both hobbyists and professional quilters for 14 years, The ArtQuilt Gallery•NYC has a separate entrance and separate identity. “ As our opening shows make clear, the quilts shown there are museum quality,” Riehl said.

The first exhibition, running April 5 to May 28, is “Quilt Drawing,” devoted to works of the noted artist Daphne Taylor, who was born into a Quaker Philadelphia family and trained as a painter before gravitating into quilting. In her quilts, lines reminiscent of landscape and figure are embroidered, pieced and composed within frameworks ranging from open white spaces to complex color fields. “The results tempt the viewer into a world of light and fragmented reminisces,” critic Mimi Sherman wrote of Taylor’s quilts, which have been displayed at the Museum of Art and Design in New York. Taylor now divides her time between rural Maine and Manhattan, where she chairs the art department at the Friends Seminary School.

Following that debut show, The ArtQuilt Gallery•NYC will feature the work of Japan’s Noriko Endo, who uses thousands of bits of fabric and thread to create astonishingly photorealistic scenes from nature on quilts that have been displayed at the UK Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England; the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY; and the Art du Quilt Expo in France. “As an artist, Noriko Endo never takes a false step,” said renowned American quilter Paula Nadelstern. “Each composition, seamed from an abundance of detail and nuance, reveals new complexities, seducing the viewer to stay a long time and witness her miraculous, sleight of hand dexterity which turns minute slivers of fabric into masterful color compositions.” The Noriko Endo show, titled “Impressionist Quilts,” will run from June 16 to August 6.

“With these opening exhibits we hope to establish our gallery as the place to be seen in New York for the world’s top quilters,” said Izzo, “while also showing that New York art lovers will want to acquire these world class works for their homes.”

Gallery hours:

Tuesday to Saturday, 11 to 6 pm
Sunday & Monday by appointment only