The 4th annual Palm Springs Modernism Week 2009 kicks off this coming Friday, February 13, 2009 and will include a wide variety of events over a 9-day period. As in previous years, Modernism Week will begin with the two-day Modernism Show on February 15 and 16, preceded by an evening Preview Reception on the14th, held at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Eighty dealers of decorative and fine arts objects will offer a vast collection of modern furniture, jewelry and clothing and other items of the period.

Modernism Week 2009 features architecture tours, films, lectures, parties, a vintage car show, and many other activities to be held in various venues throughout the City of Palm Springs; all are offered as an homage to the ideals of mid-century modern design, architecture and culture. The style, which originated in the late 1940’s and continued to the mid-1960’s, is typified by clean, simple lines that celebrated an elegant informality and came to define desert modernism. Palm Springs is blessed in having the largest concentration of such mid-century homes and condos in our country, perhaps in any country. So this festival is a celebration and affirmation of one important element of Palm Springs that makes our city so special.

Modernism Week is the only such event in the country celebrating the aesthetics of modernism over such an extended number of days, thus making it appealing for aficionados to plan their vacations to coincide with the event. As a result, Modernism Week has established a passionate and enthusiastic following of  fans who now literally number in the thousands, and who come from all around the country and the world to Palm Springs for the event.

Numerous renowned architects such as Richard Neutra, John Lautner, William Krisel, Albert Frey and others designed Palm Springs’ stellar examples of modernism, inspired by the Coachella Valley’s desert topography and climate. From around 1940 to the early 1960’s, these men helped to create in Palm Springs one of the most important concentrations of modernist architecture in the world. For the full schedule, visit Modernism Week.