The Iris Foundation Awards were created in 1997 to recognize scholars, patrons, and professionals who have made outstanding contributions to the study and appreciation of the decorative arts and thereby help to sustain the cultural heritage of our world. Luncheon proceeds will benefit the Bard Graduate Center Scholarship Fund.

Honoring

Titi Halle
Marie-Louise Bech Nosch
Professor Alvar González-Palacios
Sir Nicholas Goodison

Support Levels

$25,000 Benefactor Table
$10,000 Sponsor Table
$4,000 Patron Table

To purchase a table, please contact Patricia Ann Neely, Manager of Events and Individual Giving directly at 212.501.3058.



$1,000 Benefactor Ticket ($150.00 is tax-deductible)
$600 Supporter Ticket ($150.00 is tax-deductible)
$400 Donor Ticket ($150.00 is tax-deductible)

Proceeds benefit the Bard Graduate Center Scholarship Fund.

RSVP required. Please note that the non-tax deductible portion of each ticket is $150.

We regret that no refunds will be given.

Tickets will be held at the door.


To make a contribution or for further information, please contact the Development Office at 212.501.3058 or [email protected].

About the Iris 2017 Honorees

Sir Nicholas Goodison — Outstanding Patron

Sir Nicholas Goodison is the former chairman of the London Stock Exchange and of the TSB Group. Educated at Kings College, Cambridge, from which he received a PhD in architecture and history of art, he is president of the Furniture History Society, and is former chairman of the Courtauld Institute, the National Art Collections Fund (now the Art Fund), the Crafts Council of Great Britain, and Burlington Magazine. His publications include books on English barometers 1680–1860, the gilt metalwork of Matthew Boulton, and a 2004 report for HM Treasury on private giving and government support. Since 1997 he and his wife, Judith, have donated an accumulating collection of over 100 examples of remarkable contemporary British craft to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, of which a catalogue was published in 2016.


Alvar González-Palacios — Lifetime Achievement in Scholarship

Professor Alvar González-Palacios has authored many books on Italian and French decorative arts. He taught art history at the University of Bologna and has lectured at numerous American museums as well as in England, France, Spain, and Italy. Born in Cuba, he settled in Italy in 1957 at twenty and completed his studies in the University of Florence with Roberto Longhi . His recent books include Persona e Maschera, a series of portraits of collectors, antiquarians, and art historians (Archinto, 2014); Il serraglio di pietra. La Sala degli animali in Vaticano (Città del Vaticano, 2013); and Las colecciones reales españolas de mosaicos y piedras duras (Madrid, Museo del Prado, 2001). He is currently preparing an exhibition and a monograph on Valadier to be presented at the Frick Collection in 2018 and at the Royal Palace in Madrid. He lives in Rome.

Marie-Louise Bech Nosch — Outstanding Mid-Career Scholar

Marie-Louise Nosch specializes in Aegean epigraphy and Mycenaean textile production. From 2005 to 2016, she directed the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research—a leading academic institution that promotes, expands, and consolidates textile research and trains young scholars. She has organized international conferences and workshops on textile themes and is the author of numerous papers and editor of anthologies including Ancient Textiles Series (Oxbow Books, Oxford). Among her awards are the Elite Research Award from the Ministry of Research and Technology, Denmark; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Anneliese Maier Research Award; and she is a chevalier of the l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, France.


Titi Halle — Outstanding Dealer

Titi Halle is owner and director of Cora Ginsburg LLC. The foremost authority in historic textiles and costume, she has collected, consulted, and appraised for museums throughout the world. Halle has exhibited at major fairs in Berlin, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco and is on the vetting committees for TEFAF Maastricht and the Winter Antiques Show. A member of the Centre International d’Etudes des Textiles Anciens, the Costume Society of America, and the Textile Society of America, she is a former vice president of the National Antique and Art Dealers Association of America, has appeared on Antiques Road Show, and has lectured at museums throughout the United States. For the last twenty-two years, Cora Ginsburg LLC has published an annual scholarly catalogue that is in libraries around the world.