Design Lecture Series Will Face South

“If the ‘90s are about anything, it’s the reality of good things at good value,” says Patrick J. Dunne, who is one of five design experts to speak at a lecture series in Newport Beach sponsored by the Decorative Arts Society.

Dunne, proprietor of Lucullus, a New Orleans shop teeming with dining antiques, will present a talk on “French High Style and the Creole Table” on Feb. 8. “The way people eat is a mark of their civilization,” he says. “Like all fins de siecles, ours is a strange time, and we all long desperately to be nourished.”

The other speakers will also address topics with a distinctly Southern flair. Wendall Garrett, senior vice president of Sotheby’s New York, will talk on Southern arts and architecture Tuesday.

On Nov. 16, John Keefe, curator of Decorative Arts at the New Orleans Museum of Art, will speak of Vieux Paris Porcelains. These hard-paste porcelains were decorated in Paris and collected by Presidents John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe.

Suzanne Turner, a consultant for historic and cultural landscape preservation, will speak on landscapes and gardens of the Old South on March 14.

Completing the series is Jonathan Prown, director and chief curator of the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee. His talk on April 11 will be on Southern furniture.

The series will benefit New Directions for Women Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides treatment for women with addictions.

Tickets for the series are $160 and are available at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Edwards Newport Cinemas, 300 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. For more information, call (949) 675-2415.