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Tuesday night, my loft served as the venue for a small, private dinner party to benefit More Art, a not-for-profit organization that connects groundbreaking artists with local communities by bringing dynamic works to the public. Hosted by artist Marina Abramovic, whose highly anticipated retrospective at MOMA opens 3/14—a must see, the event was the first in a series of private fundraisers that reflect More ART’s desire to create intimate art experiences as a means of promoting creative efforts.

Marina Abromovic, Laura Michaels

Guests (who consisted of curators, collectors, writers and artists) were asked to wear white lab coats and feasted on a sumptuous menu of food (pork, specifically, and fish for the vegetarians) and wines prepared by Chef and Artist Keil Borrman who is pictured in the painting behind the cutting board in a pretty compromising position (LOL). The painting served as the menu and Keil would appear as each course was served to talk about energy transformation as it related to each course, which was the theme for the evening.

Marina Abromovic hosts a benefit dinner for More Art

Before dessert, Marina had us drink 24 carat gold water from beautiful glassware and meditate for 3 minutes, which was a wonderful experience.

Guests at the More Art benefit dinner

Everyone received a special, pre-edition copy of Marina Abramovic’s Energy Blanket. Made in collaboration with More Art, the Energy Blanket is a unique art object that depicts the artist’s body and energy lines, and contains magnets carefully situated to improve circulation. It is designed to instill a profound feeling of wellness, and judging from how well I slept last night, it succeeds in doing just that. It will be available for sale at the MOMA next month.

2010 promises to be an exciting year for More ART. Upcoming projects include collaborations by Kimsooja with the Hudson Guild Senior Center, Paul Pfeiffer with Liberty HS, Andrea Galvani with NYC welders, and Joan Jonas with Clinton MS. Plus, the new moreart.org web site will be launching in the next few weeks – as I write this, the designers and developers at Fusebox are hard at work on its redesign!

Like everyone we speak to, we are deeply saddened by the destruction and loss of life caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti. We, too, have read the stories, donated and prayed. And like everyone we speak to, we’ve wished we could do more.

So, when our friends at BET Networks called us this week asking us to donate our services in support of the SOS Help for Haiti Telethon, we were delighted to help. We designed, built and are hosting a web site where, for $30, visitors can purchase the specially designed t-shirt below, the proceeds from which will go directly to four Haitian relief organizations.

While we can’t undo what has happened in Haiti, if the telethon provides even just a little a bit of hope to the Haitian people, then we’ll consider it a success.

The SOS Help for Haiti Telethon airs tonight at 8/7C PM on BET, MTV and VHI. Proceeds will benefit Yele Haiti, CARE, Project Medishare and Children’s Safe Drinking Water.

We have two job openings; one is for an intern and the other a junior designer. If you’re just beginning your career in Web design and are looking to gain some hands-on experience, grab the intern position. If you have already have some experience in Web design and are looking for a new challenge that will let you take your skills further, then the junior designer position maybe be just what you’re looking for.

With social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – now nearly as ubiquitous as cell phones, as a digital agency, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to monetize these new platforms for our clients. We are, after all, a for-profit business. But that doesn’t mean we’re just about profit. Using our skills to try to make the world a little bit better has always been a key part of our philosophy at Fusebox.

One of the ways we’re currently doing that is by sponsoring the Social Media for Social Change (SM4SC) fundraiser for Camillus House, being held tonight at Club 50 at the Viceroy, in Miami. SM4SC connects people actively involved in the social media arena – technologists, PR professionals, bloggers, etc. – with non-profit organizations to help them use these new tools and platforms to maximize their fundraising efforts. Camillus House, serves poor and homeless men, women and children living in South Florida.

We’re inspired by the amazing work that both of these organizations are doing, and we’re proud to have the opportunity to support them.

I read an interesting, article on the Ad Age website this morning. It was about Fortune 100 companies use of #Twitter. There are some interesting stats.

Read the Article

Wolff Olins’ work on London’s 2012 Olympic logo has been the topic of many debates on logo design. Initially I thought flasback to the 80’s! Then I thought wow no gradient reflections, no faux 3d with highlights, atypical color choice,  he’s breaking all the rules and all the current trends. I think for that reason alone I love it, I’m curious to see it integrated with marketing materials, that should be some challenge.

Bryan and I spoke at New York University to a group of MBA students enrolled in “Development for the Visual Arts,” a course which examines fundraising opportunities for not-for-profit organization. Our talk focused on Social Media and its applications for fundraising in the not-for-profit world. We discussed everything from brand building to execution and how social media, when used well, can open real dialogue between organizations and the community or, in other words, to “Stop marketing and start talking.”

The talk is best summarized in the letters we received from a number of students thanking us for our time. Below is one of my favorites.

“Thank you so much for coming in to speak with our class last night. It was fascinating to hear you both talk about the importance of social networking for organizations. You made an interesting point that doing this is not necessarily to sell the audience, but rather to get your name out and connect with your audience. It was inspirational, to say the least, to see that your work comes from a genuine desire to be innovative, be honest, and connect people. Like you said: Make a promise to your audience, and then keep that promise.

Not only was it fantastic to hear you two speak, but I must admit, I was a bit star struck when I discovered that I was in the presence of two people behind one of my favorite childhood memories, “Natalie’s Backseat Traveling Webshow.” I was nine years old, and insisted that my father show me how to start a “webshow” of my own…on Microsoft Word. My offline writing about my travels around my living room may have only lasted a week, but here I am, fourteen years later, with a blog.

So, again, thank you so much for coming to speak to our class. It was truly a privilege to receive advice from such sincere and successful people.”