Santa Barbara County is blessed with a diversity of vital nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving the health, well-being, growth, civic leadership and compassion of our community.
Charitable giving and philanthropy are part of our identity, which is why Noozhawk is proud to support the nonprofit community through sponsoring local community organizations and events.
To showcase our support of the event, The Work of a Fashion Curator: A Conversation with Dennita Sewell, Director of ASU FIDM, Noozhawk spoke with Cara Rademaker at Couture Pattern Museum to learn more about their event.
Couture Pattern Museum
Question: What is the name and date of your event?
Answer: Zoom Gathering on April 8 at 2pm. The Work of a Fashion Curator: A Conversation with Dennita Sewell, Director of ASU FIDM.
Q: What is the mission, goal, and/or theme of this occasion?
A: This event brings fashion education and cultural programming to the Santa Barbara community through a conversation with a leading figure in fashion curation. It offers the community a chance to better understand how museums preserve fashion history, and how fashion exhibitions are created.
The goal is to make the process feel more accessible to students, creatives, and anyone curious about the field, or to anyone who wants to understand what goes on behind the scenes of a major fashion exhibition.
Dennita Sewell has curated more than fifty fashion exhibitions over the course of her career. She worked for two decades as the Curator of Fashion Design at the Phoenix Art Museum and previously worked with the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Q: Have you held this event before?
A: The Couture Pattern Museum hosted Zoom gatherings in the past, including a recent conversation with author Rebecca C. Tuite on Vogue editor Jessica Daves. As the museum’s audience has grown beyond Santa Barbara, we’ve continued to expand these virtual programs to include a wider national and international community.
These conversations allow us to connect that broader audience with Santa Barbara’s cultural landscape. It’s been meaningful to see the city become part of a larger dialogue around fashion history, curation, and craftsmanship, while still staying rooted in our local community.
Q: Tell us some more details about your celebration?
A: This conversation looks at how fashion exhibitions come together, how historic garments are studied, and how curators shape the stories told through fashion.
For those in the local community, it will also offer a clearer understanding of how ASU FIDM in Los Angeles came together and where the program is headed.
Q: How do people get involved with your event? (volunteer, attend, etc.) – If your event includes ticket sales, please note the price and include a link to purchase tickets.
A: People can join by registering through the Couture Pattern Museum’s website. The event is open to the public and will take place on Zoom, with time for audience questions.
Tickets are available here.
Those interested in becoming more involved can engage with the museum by booking a private tour, arranging a group tour event, or signing up for a museum membership, which only begins at $5/mo. We are also looking to add members to the museum’s Couture Council.
Q: Is this a fundraising affair? If so, how will the funds raised help your organization?
A: Yes. Tickets are $25 and directly support the Couture Pattern Museum’s ongoing work, including the preservation of the archives and to help support future educational programming. These funds also support the museum’s preservation efforts, with over 13,000 individual pattern pieces already digitized and archived.
Q: Who is sponsoring your event, and why is their support important?
A: This event is not formally sponsored. Dennita Sewell is generously joining us as a guest speaker, and the Couture Pattern Museum has grown as a self-funded non-profit project through memberships, tours, grassroots donations, and volunteers.
Dennita’s participation allows us to share access to a level of curatorial experience typically found within major museums and institutions to the local Santa Barbara community.
We are grateful for sponsorship opportunities as we continue to grow and expand our local programming.
Q: Do you work with an Event Planner? If not, who are the key people who make it all happen?
A: For this event, the Couture Pattern Museum did not work with an external event planner. Programs are organized by founder and managing director, Cara Austine-Rademaker, who brings together speakers and collaborators through her connections across the fashion and museum worlds.
Q: Does your organization have any other upcoming events this year?
A: Yes. The Couture Pattern Museum will be hosting an upcoming Zoom conversation with a Halston model who worked directly with Roy Halston Frowick during the creation of some of his most iconic designs. She also walked in the historic Battle of Versailles, which was a defining moment in fashion history.
Q: What are you planning as a post-event follow up?
A: Following the event, a recording of the Zoom conversation will be available on the museum’s website for those who weren’t able to join live for a small fundraising fee.
This conversation also connects to what’s happening right now in Los Angeles.
ASU FIDM has a new exhibition, “Obsessed: Fashion and Nostalgia in the ’90s,” and many of our members and community have already expressed an interest in seeing it. It makes this conversation feel especially timely. The address to the ASU FIDM exhibition is 919 S. Grand.
To learn more about Couture Pattern Museum’s The Work of a Fashion Curator: A Conversation with Dennita Sewell click here.
If you would like to apply for Noozhawk’s 50/50 Match Sponsorship Program for your upcoming nonprofit event please click HERE to view our sponsorship application. The deadline for consideration is 30-45 days prior to the event. You can also contact our sales team at sales@noozhawk.com.