MAD Ball 2025 Honors Jonathan Adler at Museum of Arts and Design
The Museum of Arts and Design’s annual MAD Ball turned into a love letter to creativity as designer and potter Jonathan Adler received the Visionary Award before a room buzzing with New York’s design and fashion set. Emcee Simon Doonan—in signature razor wit—recalled Adler “rollerblading in a cloud of clay dust,” framing the honoree’s rise from MAD shop hopeful to industry-shaping force who made pottery feel glamorous, modern, and massively influential. Accepting the honor, Adler traced his roots back to the museum—his first order came from the MAD gift shop—and thanked the craftspeople and curators who “made my mad, mad world possible.”
Board Chair Michele Cohen presented a delightfully on-theme Visionary Award by jeweler Laura Fortune—a bubbling, joy-forward piece nodding to Adler’s own words about “a sense of possibilities.” Guests roamed open studios and exhibitions to live jazz, then sat for dinner at Robert with Adler-designed centerpieces, before a surprise performance by Broadway baritone Nat Chandler. Doonan kept the room laughing (“Please masticate very carefully—I’m much too short to give anyone the Heimlich”), while MAD Director Tim Rodgers underscored the evening’s stakes: in a moment when artists and museums face pressure, creative freedom remains real power.
The crowd mixed board members and boldface names—Nicole Miller, Debi Mazar, Machine Dazzle, Glenn Adamson, and more—turning the gala into a who’s-who of craft and culture. Timed perfectly, the exhibition “The Mad MAD World of Jonathan Adler” runs through April 19, 2026, with two upcoming talks: On the Couch with Jonathan Adler & Rachel Federman (Dec 11, 2025) and On the Couch with Jonathan Adler, Elissa Auther & Sarah Archer (Feb 12, 2026). A night of laughter, legacy, and hand-made glamour—exactly the kind of New York party we root for.
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