NEW YORK.- The New Museum will present a panel addressing the zeitgeist, charisma, and the herd mentality in the worlds of art, architecture, design, and fashion on Wednesday, March 28, 2007, from 6:30 - 8PM, at the Great Hall at The Cooper Union. The "IT" Factor: What Makes Something Hot? will feature five legendary tastemakers and critics who will break down the cult of cool and give insight into their participation in its creation and critique: Clarissa Dalrymple, talent scout; Mayer Rus, Design Editor, House & Garden; Francesco Vezzoli, artist; Anthony Vidler, architectural historian; and Irma Zandl, trendspotter. The panel will be moderated by Laura Hoptman, Senior Curator at the New Museum, and will also feature the first U.S. viewing of Francesco Vezzoli’s newest video, Marlene Redux: A True Hollywood Story! (2006, Courtesy Collection François Pinault).

The "IT" Factor is the third in a series of popular Hot Button! panels, presented in anticipation of the reopening of the New Museum at 235 Bowery in late 2007, and represent the spirit of an institution dedicated to new art and new ideas, and ready to embrace debate. The Hot Button! panels are designed to encourage frank conversation on issues widely discussed in private but less candidly so in the public arena.

Organized by the New Museum in association with the School of Art at The Cooper Union, these panels are held in the Great Hall at The Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue. General admission is $6 (free for New Museum members and Cooper Union faculty and students). Tickets will be available for purchase at the door. More information can be found at www.newmuseum.org or 212-219-1222.

PANELISTS

Clarissa Dalrymple
Clarissa Dalrymple has been an art dealer and curator specializing in the work of emerging artists for the past thirty years. Currently, she is an independent consultant working with Marianne Boesky Gallery. She has organized influential exhibitions that introduced the work of artists like Matthew Barney and Neo Rauch to an art-going public and collaborated with art galleries such as Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Marc Selwyn Fine Art in Los Angeles, and Nicole Klagsburn Gallery, among others.

Mayer Rus
Mayer Rus is a celebrated style arbiter and the design editor of House & Garden, which features his influential column, Testy Tastemaker. He is the former editor of Interior Design and has written for Vogue, Mirabella, Elle, the Village Voice, and Out.

Francesco Vezzoli
Francesco Vezzoli is an artist who deals with the glamorous iconography of cinema. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Fondazione Prada in Milan, the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Whitney, Venice, Istanbul and São Paulo Biennials. Vezzoli will represent Italy in the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Anthony Vidler
Anthony Vidler is one of the most influential architectural scholars in the field and is the Dean of the School of Architecture at The Cooper Union. He is a historian and critic of modern and contemporary art and architecture, specializing in French architecture from the Enlightenment to the present. His many publications include the landmark work The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely (1994), Warped Space: Architecture and Anxiety in Modern Culture (MIT Press, 2000), The Writing of the Walls: Architectural Theory in the Late Enlightenment (Princeton Architectural Press, 1987), and monographs on Claude Nicolas Ledoux, Daniel Libeskind and the photographer James Casebere, and sculptor Anish Kapoor.

Irma Zandl
Principal of the Zandl Group, Irma has been acknowledged as one of America's foremost experts on consumer insights and trend research. She specializes in "what's next" for business, helping companies stay on-trend and consumer-centric. She is in demand as a guest speaker and television commentator, and she is frequently quoted in the business press for her insights on consumer behavior and market trending-including Time, Business Week and The Economist. On the road or at home on the Lower East Side in New York, Irma always keeps an eye out for new or intriguing developments, which she posts on the Zandland Blog.