Tinwood Ventures Announces Partnership with Kathy Ireland Worldwide to Produce Home Products and Publish Museum Quality Coffee Table Publications

Furniture World Magazine

Tinwood Ventures, the intellectual property management arm of Tinwood Media and Tinwood Alliance, is proud to announce an exclusive partnership with Kathy Ireland Worldwide (KIWW), a leading design and marketing firm for home products, apparel and jewelry. Under the agreement, KIWW will introduce a line of home products based on the internationally acclaimed museum exhibition and companion books called “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.” “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend” brings to light the remarkable quilts produced between the 1920s to the 1990s by an African-American women’s collective in rural Alabama. Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times has called the Gee’s Bend exhibition and books “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced.” “We are absolutely thrilled to enter into this partnership with Lifestyle Designer Kathy Ireland and her design and marketing firm Kathy Ireland Worldwide,” said Harrison Arnett, President of Tinwood Ventures. “Kathy is firmly committed as we are to bringing wonderful quality products into the lives of today’s families. Her dedication to the working mother, and all mom’s are working moms as Kathy continually shares, is a terrific complement to the women of the Gee’s Bend Community and their world-class art forms,” added Arnett. “It is a great honor to be entrusted by the brilliant artists of Gee’s Bend with this exciting partnership,” shared Kathy, Chief Designer and CEO, Kathy Ireland Worldwide. “Many months of collaboration allowed today’s announcement to happen. I’m so grateful to my good friend Chef Andre Carthen of ACafe who first introduced the women’s collective and their work to us. It’s been a long journey to this moment, but it is one that our entire team cherishes as we move forward in fulfilling our brand’s mission of finding solutions for families, especially busy moms,” added Kathy. “Tinwood’s relationship with Kathy Ireland Worldwide represents the largest and most important partnership we have ever formed, and it will greatly enhance the projects we are planning to improve the Gee’s Bend community,” further added Arnett. “Though in this agreement Kathy has exclusive license to produce home products using Gee’s Bend quilt designs and inspirations, KIWW has, from the outset, shared in the desire to help direct funds back to the community. To that end, KIWW has allowed the provision for other companies to produce custom made products in a few select categories in order to provide even more financial support for the Gee’s Bend Community,” explained Arnett. Tinwood Ventures and Tinwood Alliance are donating proceeds from the sale of home products produced from the KIWW partnership to the Gee’s Bend Foundation, which will help to build an arts center in the Gee’s Bend community. In addition to the Quilts of Gee’s Bend design partnership, Tinwood Media and KIWW will collaborate to produce a series of museum quality coffee table books that will explore the history of many of America’s underrepresented cultural contributions. “Like Tinwood Media, KIWW has a keen interest in the presentation and documentation of many elements of American culture, including furniture, design, and style. We believe the books Tinwood Media produces with KIWW on these types of subjects will be an important and integral part of the American cultural canon,” said Paul Arnett, Executive Editor and Chief of Tinwood Media. Tinwood Ventures: Founded in 2002, Tinwood Ventures is the intellectual property management arm of Tinwood Alliance and Tinwood Media. Tinwood Alliance and Tinwood Media specialize in identifying and documenting important, yet unknown or underappreciated, American art forms and aspects of American culture. Tinwood works with museums and institutions to organize dynamic and groundbreaking exhibitions of vernacular art. As social entrepreneurs, Tinwood Ventures donates a large portion of its profits to the communities it documents and artists with whom it works. Tinwood Media was established in 1996 with the featured exhibition of the Olympic Games and the accompanying publication, Souls Grown Deep: African American Art of the South, a groundbreaking comprehensive study of Southern African American self-taught artists. Tinwood Media followed Souls Grown Deep with The Quilts of Gee’s Bend, the critically acclaimed exhibition and two companion books that debuted in the Fall of 2002. Kathy Ireland Worldwide: Kathy is CEO and Chief Designer of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, a design and marketing firm with a single mission: “finding solutions for families, especially busy moms.” Kathy’s design efforts include furniture, area rugs, flooring, lighting, wall art, decorative accessories, bedding, window coverings, tabletop, apparel and jewelry. Her outdoor living efforts, Jardin du Jour, which is a partnership with landscape designer Nicholas Walker was awarded the Gold Medal at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. Her cooking and entertaining partnership is ACafe, led by her good friend Chef André Carthen. Furniture/Today recognizes Kathy Ireland Home by Standard as the 2003 Manufacturer of the Year. Kathy Ireland is one of the most successful and respected brands in the country, having earned Best of Market honors, garnered the Good Housekeeping Seal for consumer excellence and a Designer of the Year nomination from the Dallas Market Center and Accessories Resource Team. This fall, the Kathy Ireland Brand celebrates its 10-year anniversary. By staying committed to her brand’s mission, Kathy’s been recognized as a “best friend to working mothers” by the Associated Press and London Times. She is also an honoree of National Association of Women Business Owners and National Association of Business Leaders as well as the recipient of Outstanding Mother of Year Award from the National Mother’s Day Committee. Kathy is on the Board of Directors for the Tupelo Furniture Marketing Association and is a member of Women in the Home Industries Today. For more information, please visit www.kathyireland.com