Palos Verdes Art Center is pleased to announce the opening of Placewares @PVAC, which launched February in conjunction with our architecture exhibition Ladd & Kelsey: Noble Places, curated by Placewares co-owner Kevin Lane.

 The first Placewares opened in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1978, specializing (as it does today) in wares for your place. It eventually grew to a chain of seven neighborhood stores around New England before its original owners’ retirement in 2004.

In 2005, a single Placewares store was opened in the California coastal town of Gualala, just north of fabled architectural community, The Sea Ranch.

Now, in its 41st year, Placewares entered its latest chapter under the ownership of design enthusiasts Shev Rush and Kevin Lane, with continued operations at The Sea Ranch, an expanded and enhanced online store and a vibrant social media presence.

Placewares continues to carry iconic designs from the store’s four-decade history, including products from iittala, Marimekko, Heller, Chemex, Alessi, Normann Copenhagen, Bodum, and Chilewich. At the same time, the owners spend time each year searching at home and abroad for the very best products available in the categories you’ll find at the shop at the Art Center and online at www.placewares.com.

At PVAC, Placewares will assist in the curation of architecture and design exhibitions and workshops, while The Sea Ranch store hosts a gallery space showing an exciting, unusual and rotating mix of local California artists as well as internationally celebrated artists with works housed in the permanent collections of MOMA, Tate Modern, Art Institute of Chicago, LACMA, MOCA, SFMOMA, and The Menil Collection, among others.