Café Floss

When Floss Barber read the book, Rush: Revolution, Madness, and the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father, by Stephen Fried, she was moved by the stories of Colonial Philadelphians and their enlightened thinking. It made her want to capture the details of her own generation’s creative minds. In the Café Floss podcast series, the founder of interior design studio Floss Barber Inc. sits down with a select group of creative legends who have spent their careers in Philadelphia. They might not have signed the Declaration of Independence like Benjamin Rush and his friends, but they have forged creative paths, broken barriers, and helped ensure future generations can think, work, and live in imaginative and inspired ways. In each episode, Floss delves into the life and experiences of one individual. By discussing their early years, career beginnings, challenges, and achievements, Floss and her guests capture their stories for generations. Floss brings her own designer perspective to the conversations, exploring how Philadelphia’s rich artistic and cultural heritage has influenced her guests. Produced by Philadelphia media production lab RADIOKISMET, which espouses a belief in the inherent value of every person’s story, Café Floss helps preserve the legacy of Philadelphia’s creative community.

A conversation with Stephen Tanis and Floss Barber 05/01/2023

A conversation with Ed Brown and Floss Barber 02/22/2023

A conversation with Cecil Baker and Floss Barber 02/22/2023

A conversation with Cecil Baker and Floss Barber Born and raised in Argentina, Cecil Baker came to the United States in 1959 to attend Williams College. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and went on to get his Master of Architecture degree, studying under Louis Kahn, at the University of Pennsylvania. Cecil brings to each project a unique vision, grounded firmly in his design ideals of serenity and distinct simplicity. He inspires Clients to envision their projects in a new light, and through the partnership that develops, creativity and inventiveness flourish. Cecil finds joy in cultivating every phase of a project, and as a result, his hand can be detected in the largest of gestures to the smallest of details. Prior to the formation of Cecil Baker + Partners in 1982 he had, with three architect friends, established BRHB Developers, a building and development enterprise whose goal was to put into practice the planning principles that had been the core of his architectural experience, and in the process prove that good design and profitability are compatible. BRHB Developers built and marketed a portfolio of 279 apartments and single family residences. Cecil continues to be a partner in this real estate entity. In 2012, Cecil was appointed by the Mayor of Philadelphia to serve on the City Planning Commission's Civic Design Review Committee. Cecil is a past Board Member and Vice President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA. He has been regional representative on the national AIA’s Standing Committee on Housing. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University and lectured at other institutions of higher learning. Cecil's firm is the recipient of more than fifty regional and national design awards. In 2008 he was named to the Hall of Fame by Residential Architect. Cecil lives with his wife, Fairley, in the Washington Square West neighborhood of Philadelphia. /episode/index/show/25a4ac33-89a4-4876-a5c8-4475e382fbca/id/26014653

A conversation with Emanuel Kelly and Floss Barber 02/22/2023

A conversation with Jeanne Ruddy and Floss Barber 02/22/2023

A conversation with Eileen Neff and Floss Barber 02/22/2023

A conversation with Eileen Neff and Floss Barber Having formally studied literature and painting, Eileen Neff has been working with photo-based images and installations since 1981. Her work draws on both historic and contemporary concepts of picturing the natural and constructed world, as well as being an investigation of studio practice itself. And increasingly, it has developed in relation to the sites where she’s exhibited, engaging forms of display and presentation as another, critical layer of consideration. The kind of heightened attention afforded by travel has also been a regular marker in Neff’s work, adding to the apparent subjects her expanded range of photographic and sculptural strategies employ; straight-forward representations, constructed images, and sheer abstractions reflect the breadth of pictorial approaches that seem increasingly necessary to make some poetic sense of her experience in the world. Neff has been the recipient of several awards, including the John S. Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography, the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts Grant, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, and the Leeway Foundation Artist Grant. She’s been awarded residencies at Monte Azul Center for the Arts, Talamanca Mountains, Costa Rica; The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA; La Napoule Art Foundation, La Napoule, France; and Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, Clermont, KY. Eileen Neff’s work has been reviewed in Artforum International, Art in American, Modern Painters, The New York Times, dArt International, Artnet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Photo Review, and Circa Art Magazine, among others. Neff’s work is represented in many permanent collections, including The Hood Museum; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Pennsylvania Convention Center; Pew Charitable Trusts; Art in Embassies, Permanent Art Collection; The Fabric Workshop and Museum; The Dietrich Foundation; Banco Espirito Santo, Lisbon, Portugal; Mellon Financial Corporation; Progressive Corporation Art Collection; Pepsi Cola National Brand Beverages Art Collection; Glenmede Trust Company; The Bancorp, Inc.; and Temple University. Eileen Neff is a Resident Critic and Seminar Instructor in the MFA Program at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 1989 – 2002, Neff wrote reviews for Artforum International and continues to write independently. /episode/index/show/25a4ac33-89a4-4876-a5c8-4475e382fbca/id/26014566

Café Floss

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