Fall Into Chopped-tober On Food Network With New Tournament Chopped: Impossible And New Series Chopped Junior

Robert Irvine is in the Chopped Kitchen in Chopped: Impossible Premiering on Thursday, October 22nd

Little Chefs with Big Skills Compete on New Series Chopped Junior Premiering on Tuesday, October 27th

October brings two new premieres to Food Network with an impossible stunt and exciting new series hosted by Ted Allen. Former Chopped champions are pushed to their limits when they return to compete in an epic four-part tournament in Chopped: Impossible, premiering on Thursday, October 22^nd at 8pm ET/PT. Ted Allen presides over the Chopped: Impossible‘s premiere episode on Thursday, October 22nd at 8pm ET/PT, as competitors are given canned whipped topping to include as an unwelcome appetizer ingredient, the entrees round offers some awfully stinky cookies and when the dessert round arrives, the ingredient has teeth which will force the remaining two competitors to choose whether they will bite back or run scared.

Special guest and contestant Robert Irvine of Food Network’s Chopped – Impossible

Through three preliminary battles, Restaurant: Impossible’s Robert Irvine will command a seat on the judging panel, as twelve returning champs face some of the most mind-blowing baskets in Chopped history. Three competitors will power on to the Grand Finale, where one will win $15,000 and the chance to throw down in an impossibly daunting wild card round: against Chef Robert. If the last chef standing can beat Robert, they stand to win $25,000 more, for a total of $40,000! But they will have to achieve the impossible to take home the huge prize and be judged along the way by Chopped judges Maneet Chauhan, Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag, Alex Guarnaschelli, Aarón Sánchez, Chris Santos and Geoffrey Zakarian.

Judges Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag and Aarón Sánchez with host Ted Allen on Food Network’s Chopped

Then the stakes are big and the competitors are little as talented junior chefs vie for the title of Chopped Junior Champion in new series Chopped Junior premiering on Tuesday, October 27(th) at 8pm ET/PT. Chopped Junior showcases the talents of girls and boys between the ages of 9 and 15 years old seeking to make unforgettable meals from the mystery ingredients under the infamous ticking clock of the Chopped kitchen. They may bring their unbridled energy, big personalities and unstoppable originality to the kitchen, but only one can be crowned Chopped Junior Champion winning the $10,000 prize.

Host Ted Allen is seen on the set of Food Network’s Chopped Junior, Season 1.

Host Ted Allen checks in on junior chef Grace LaFountain as she cooks with lamb loin chops, mini pepperoni pizzas, Chinese long beans and orzo during round 2 as seen on Food Network’s Chopped Junior, Season 1.

Throughout the season of Chopped Junior, ambitious young chefs open their baskets to find mandatory mystery ingredients ranging from pickled pigs feet to tofu to birthday cake and are challenged to create appetizers, entrees or desserts before the clock runs out! Over the course of the season, the junior chefs show their incredible culinary skills as they transform their basket ingredients into masterpiece dishes.

Cooper Hewitt Announces Lineup for 2015 National Design Week and Full Schedule of Fall Public Programs

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum marks the 10th anniversary of National Design Week Oct. 10–18, 2015 with a range of programs for students, teachers, design professionals and the general public celebrating the important role that design plays in all aspects of daily life. The museum’s largest educational initiative, National Design Week is a highlight of Cooper Hewitt’s full suite of fall programs, which include the return of Design by Hand, a series of workshops for all ages led by designers from Pixar Animation Studios; Game Changers, a new program of conversations with influential and innovative practitioners; and exhibition-related lectures on graphic design and architecture.

“Our education programs bring the public into dynamic contact with the world’s most celebrated innovators and problem solvers in design today, including many of our National Design Awards winners,” said Caroline Baumann, director of Cooper Hewitt. “Participants are immersed in design’s rapidly changing landscape and the field’s latest innovations, while also gaining critical design-thinking skills.”

Launched in 2006, National Design Week makes design widely accessible to the public through interactive events and programs for students, teachers, corporate professionals, designers and other members of Cooper Hewitt’s dedicated audience. Kicking off with the Target Family Design Festival Oct. 10 and 11, the week continues with events such as the Teen Design Fair, and a panel with winners of the 2015 National Design Awards, among many others.

Design By Hand, Part of the Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Week festivities

This fall’s Design by Hand series focuses on the craftsmanship and innovations of pioneering film studio Pixar Animation Studios, concurrent with the exhibition “Pixar: The Design of Story.” John Lasseter, Pixar’s chief creative officer, will give a Design Talk Nov. 12, moderated by Michael Bierut, partner in the New York design firm Pentagram. Programs led by Pixar’s creative staff include hands-on workshops for teens, families, college students and adults on all facets of the design process.

Launched in April 2015 with Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO, Game Changers is a new program of conversations with designers, thinkers and industry leaders across design disciplines. The series continues this fall with graphic designer Irma Boom, architect Bjarke Ingels and interactive designer Jeff Han.

In conjunction with the current exhibition “How Posters Work,” Experimental Jetset joins senior curator of contemporary design Ellen Lupton in conversation Sept. 16, while Philippe Apeloig and Georgie Stout helm a Graphic Design Meet Up Sept. 26.

On Oct. 8, Thomas Heatherwick speaks with architectural critic and Vanity Fair contributing editor Paul Goldberger about his studio’s origins and current work, some of which is on view in “Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio,” in a lecture at Cooper Union.

NATIONAL DESIGN WEEK: OCT. 10–18, 2015

Target Family Design Festival
Saturday, Oct. 10, and Sunday, Oct. 11; 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2 East 91st St., New York City

A free two-day family festival with educational activities for all ages, including scavenger hunts, workshops and storytelling, celebrating the 10th anniversary of National Design Week.

Design Tales Family Programs
Monday, Oct. 12, and Wednesday, Oct. 14; 10–11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2 East 91st St., New York City

Tuesday, Oct. 13, and Thursday, Oct. 15; 10–11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Cooper Hewitt Design Center, 111 Central Park North, New York City

A free literacy-based program for preschool children ages 2 to 5 and their caregivers incorporating storytelling, design vocabulary and hands-on activities.

Drop In on Design Family Programs
Monday, Oct. 12–Friday, Oct. 16; 4–6 p.m. daily.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2 East 91st St., New York City

A series of free afterschool programs, where families with kids ages 7 to 12 explore design through fun hands-on activities.

Teen Design Fair
Tuesday, Oct. 13; 4–6 p.m.
Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, One Bowling Green, New York City

New York City teens learn about design careers and educational opportunities from winners, jurors, guest designers and college representatives. Tim Gunn will give the keynote address.

National Design Award Winners’ Panel
Tuesday, Oct. 13; 7–8:30 p.m.
Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, One Bowling Green, New York City

A panel discussion with 2015 National Design Award winners about their inspiration. Panelists include Roman Alonso (Commune), Stephen Burks (Stephen Burks Man Made), Adi Gil (threeASFOUR) and John Underkoffler (Oblong Industries).

National Design Awards Gala (Tickets required.)
Thursday, Oct. 15
6 p.m.: Cocktail Reception
7:30 p.m.: Dinner & Awards Ceremony
Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers, 23rd Street and the Westside Highway, New York City

A gala benefit dinner and awards ceremony honoring this year’s National Design Award winners. All proceeds support Cooper Hewitt’s programs that educate, inspire and empower people through design.

Target Design Kids Family Programs
Saturday, Oct. 17; 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. and 1:30–3 p.m.
Cooper Hewitt Design Center, 111 Central Park North, New York City

A series of free workshops where families with kids ages 5 to 12 become designers and make fun projects all day.

EXHIBITION- AND COLLECTION-RELATED PROGRAMS

Actual Size: Experimental Jetset
Wednesday, Sept. 16; 6:30 p.m.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2 East 91st St., New York City
$15 general, $10 members, $8 students; registration required.

Experimental Jetset was founded by Erwin Brinkers, Marieke Stolk and Danny van den Dungen in Amsterdam in 1997. The designers are known for their rigorously systematic work, including the new identity for the Whitney Museum of American Art. Work by Experimental Jetset is included in Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection and is featured in the exhibition “How Posters Work,” on view through Jan. 24, 2016.  

First Retrospective in 20 Years of Master Photographer Irving Penn Opens Oct. 23 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

EXHIBITION INCLUDES PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN PHOTOGRAPHS AND FILM OF ARTIST AT WORK

Irving Penn (1917–2009), known for his iconic fashion, portrait and still life images that appeared in Vogue magazine, ranks as one of the foremost photographers of the 20th century. “Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty” at The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the first retrospective of Penn’s work in nearly 20 years, will celebrate his legacy as a modern master and demonstrate the photographer’s continued influence on the medium.

Irving Penn, Salvador Dali, New York, 1947, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation

In a career that spanned nearly 70 years, Penn’s aesthetic and technical skill earned him accolades in both the artistic and commercial worlds. He was a master of both black-and-white and color photography, and his revival of platinum printing in the 1960s and 1970s was a catalyst for significant change in the art world. He was one of the first photographers to cross the chasm that separated magazine and fine-art photography, narrowing the gap between art and fashion. Penn’s portraits and fashion photographs defined elegance in the 1950s, yet throughout his career he also transformed mundane objects—storefront signs, food, cigarette butts, street debris—into memorable images of unexpected, often surreal, beauty.

Smithsonian Institute/Smithsonian American Art Museum logo

The exhibition features work from all stages of Penn’s career—street scenes from the late 1930s, photographs of the American South from the early 1940s, celebrity portraits, fashion photographs, still lifes and more private studio images. Penn’s pictures reveal a taste for stark simplicity whether he was photographing celebrities, fashion models, still lifes or people in remote places of the world.

“Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty” is drawn entirely from the extensive holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. On display will be 146 photographs from the museum’s permanent collection, including the debut of 100 photographs recently donated to the museum by The Irving Penn Foundation. The exhibition presents 48 previously unseen or never exhibited photographs. Also on view for the first time will be Super 8 mm films of Penn in Morocco, made by his wife Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, that add a vivid picture of the artist at work.

Irving Penn, Bee, New York, 1995, printed 2001, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Promised Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation.

The 100 photographs announced as a donation to the museum in 2013 include rare street photographs from the late 1930s and 1940s, most of which are unpublished; images of post-war Europe; iconic portraits of figures such as Truman Capote, Salvador Dali and Leontyne Price; color photographs made for magazine editorials and commercial advertising; self-portraits; and some of Penn’s most recognizable fashion and still life photographs. All the prints were made during the artist’s lifetime and personally approved by him. In 1988, Penn donated to the museum 60 photographs, spanning his career from 1944 to 1986.

“Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty” will be on view from October 23, 2015 through March 20, 2016; it will then travel to several cities across the United States. Merry Foresta is the guest curator; she was the museum’s curator of photography from 1983 to 1999.

Irving Penn, Ball Dress by Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci, New York, 2007, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © Condé Nast

“Irving Penn’s art leads to many aesthetic discoveries, transcending daily life through intense leaps of feeling and understanding,” said Betsy Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “I am grateful to the Penn Foundation team for their generosity and for their participation at every step along our journey of discovery. They shared our excitement and encouraged us to pursue all new directions. A review of Penn’s whole career persuades me that in his last 20 years he became bolder and more daring, a turn that this exhibition begins to explore.”

Irving Penn, Leontyne Price, New York, 1961, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © Condé Nast

“From his first photographs to the ones he made in the last years of his life, Irving Penn’s consistency of artistic integrity is remarkable,” said Foresta. “He was able to elevate even crushed coffee cups and steel blocks to the realm of great art, printing his images with exacting care. But in the final analysis his work is not just about beauty, or about the potentials of photography as an art form, but a combination of the two that is indivisible and unique.”