The Napkin Earns a Place Above the Table

The idea was deceptively simple, like any good design concept. Last year, a newly formed alumni association events committee at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) was tossing around ways to raise funds for the 30-year-old architectural school. Then it came to them, said Aviva Carmy, a graduate of the class of 1980 and a member of the committee. Napkins. White paper napkins.

Judith Newmark (also class of ‘80) explained the fit: “It is iconographic. It is legendary. Even when you are eating, you can’t stop designing. You are sitting at dinner. You draw your idea on a napkin. It is just the most funny, common thing for architects to draw on napkins.” So, they invited architects from all over the world to submit drawings on napkins. And they did.

Thirty-five napkins of the 50 sent out came back the first year, each with an architect’s signed sketch. All were presented framed at a silent auction, and bidders paid up to $900 for a single piece. The buyers were very enthusiastic. “You should see them when they go to pick up their napkins--they zoom up,” Carmy said.

An encore was in order. Eighty blank napkins were mailed to architects, artists, writers and designers for this year’s benefit, which takes place Sept. 29 at the school and is titled East of Eden. As of early this week, 21 returns have been tallied. Bidding for the drawings--which are done in ink, markers, pencils and even watercolors and are all framed--begins at $175 each and rises in $25 increments. Some architects draw on the folded napkins, but this year, most have opened or unfolded them.

The guest of honor at the event will be architect Peter Noever, founder of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House in West Hollywood and chief executive officer and artistic director of Vienna’s MAK, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art.

“Last year Peter Noever sent back a cloth napkin instead of using the supplied paper one,” Carmy recalled. “He sent me a note with his napkin. ‘I don’t use paper. You know what they use paper for.’ So his drawing was done on a cloth napkin.” In fact, he didn’t do a drawing but, instead, handwrote a Russian poem about how “art lives in Russia” and included signatures of Russian dignitaries.” Carmy said they sent him a paper napkin again this year, but she had yet to receive his response.

Carmy said the wide range of drawings received reflects a worldwide camaraderie and strong feelings about SCI-Arc. “It is extremely rare to have all this body of work in one place, this international architectural crowd. They wouldn’t have done this for just anything. They did this for SCI-Arc.”

Tickets to the event, which will take place at the school’s new downtown campus, are $135 and include a tour of the school’s new home at 350 Merrick St. Call (213) 613-2200, Ext. 338 or e-mail sclay@sciarc.edu for details.

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Candace A. Wedlan can be reached at candace.wedlan@latimes.com