September 26, 2016 9:52 am Meet Hayley Skurowski – Creator of Curation, must-see pop up in Greenwich
What do you love to do with your children? How old are they? And what is your greatest wish for them?
We have 1 daughter who is 4 years old. We love to go on adventures locally and all around the world! She is an amazing swimmer so in the winter we love to go swimming, sauna and have a cozy lunch by the fire! I always loved the summer growing up in Australia, and upon moving to the US, I found it really difficult to adjust to the freezing and lengthy winters. However, I have found that I really enjoy the time when Autumn comes, all the harvesting begins and the first fire is lit for the season. I love to cook with my family so enjoying the seasonal produce is really so wonderful!
I wish for my daughter to enjoy the wonderful lifestyle that she has here in Greenwich and New York City but to work hard to remain grounded and gracious. I think that this is so important in her growth as a human being. I also hope that I can teach her that, no matter how long she lives, she will always find new things to learn and be inspired by. I hope she grows as a person and understands we are never fully formed. If she lives her life with these things in mind, I believe she will be deeply happy and have a healthy insatiable appetite for life and living.
When and where are you the happiest?
When I am home. Home is a deeply interesting thing, place, space and ideal to me. It is so complex an idea yet so simple. I am deeply fascinated at how humans feel at home and where or what enables and helps them feel that way. As a lover of creating things and space, I love being in my home with family in Greenwich and in Australia, or surrounded by my working life in my gallery in Greenwich which also feels like home.
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Everywhere! Australians love to travel anywhere and everywhere! However, at the moment I really want to visit India as it is one place that I have not travelled to and there is a lot about it at the moment on my radar. Superstar Australian artist and lifelong friend Miranda Skoczek, who is one of the artists in my gallery, has a huge fascination with the complexities of India, its deities and its history. She channels a lot of its incredible aesthetic in her work. Another friend who is an amazing designer and photographer, will come into my gallery and give a talk all about his upcoming book about Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh. Chandigarh and its buildings were designed by Le Corbusier. It is a very interesting subject and many are not familiar with this incredibly colossal amount of work that Le Corbusier carried out. The book combines architectural documentary with social realism. Fascinating!
Who has had the biggest influence upon you? And what quality do you most admire in a mother?
My delightful mum! She is so calm and kind and respectful. Things that I hope I can be as a mother too. She always told me never to worry about something until it is really happening. If you don’t like something, change it so that you can make the most of every situation.
What do you like to do for fun?
Make things, see new design and art and travel! Fine arts and interior architecture are my strengths and deep loves. When I was at university over 20 years ago, I never dreamt I’d be still creating! Now that I think about the past and the future, I see that I will be working and growing with these loves for the rest of my life. My work is my love and so far from being a ‘job’.
What is one of your favorite books? Movies?
One of my favorite movies would have to be Dancer in the Dark. The music and the intensity of the emotions portrayed are truly incredible. I love books and they are a huge inspiration to art and architectural projects that I am working on. I have a wonderful book collection but am finding it hard to name just one favorite!
Besides motherhood, what other careers/opportunities have you enjoyed? What are your strongest qualities?
Being an interior architect, art curator and artist, I love it all so much! I guess my strongest quality is that I just feel my way through it and let my true sense of what feels right guide me. In the creative world, it is so important to please your inner artistic desires. In taking this risk, you will give others so much more through your spirit and offerings than if you just appease their requests.
What is your favorite type of food and what do you love to cook?
Japanese food is my favorite. I was lucky enough to study Japanese at school and visit Japan. The food is intensely fresh and the design thinking that goes into every tiny aspect of the presentation is just sublime. As a lover of creating things, I also love to cook. At the moment our house is under construction so I am struggling and dearly missing my kitchen. But on a good kitchen day, I love to cook anything that comes fresh in our organic fruit and veg box! I seldom follow recipes and just put together things based on the season. I love to cook for my husband and daughter and groups of people. The kitchen is the heart of the home.
What is your favorite time of the day and why?
Either upon waking in the morning or those moments just before I fall asleep when peacefulness settles and thoughts are merging into dreams! I love to be slow in the mornings and make a big breakfast and not rush through the time. It’s so wonderful to still have another year or two of relaxed mornings before the school run starts… My daughter goes to school in the afternoons and I go to the gallery to work when she is at school. That means we have the whole morning together for food and play and making things or going on new adventures to discover new things! Going to the woods to take photos or gather sticks and create something…!
Where is your favorite place to Party with Moms and what’s your favorite drink?
I love licorice tea during the day. Actually, I crave it when I wake in the morning! I make a huge thermos of it in the morning that I take with me and drink all day long. It’s like my comfort blanket! Afternoons call for a favorite cocktail of Campari, blood orange juice and a dash of seltzer. We love to hang in Greenwich as there are so many old and new wonderful places to eat.
A little something about the gallery…
Curation was launched in September 2016 and combines my love and two decades of experience in interior architecture, design and fine art. Prior to the launch of Curation, I maintained a residential interior architecture practice and curated fine art for my clients. Curation was born to further this practice to allow me to curate a collaborative show of artists who are really well established within the Australian sphere and bring them further afield for all to enjoy. The shows that we create together are defined by having one narrative, stretching out and challenging each artist’s solo practice to come together.
The physical space is a recurring pop up space that exists for 6-8 weeks each year to show the current collaboration of work by the group of Australian artists. It takes the artist group one year to prepare for the next Curation collaboration, hence the recurring pop up each year.
The space is set to mimic residential space; a hybrid space crossing fine art and design with events as we do in our homes.
Within the space, the art is the backdrop for various events, as well as the environment in which the interior architecture studio operates. The actual space is a place for practice and collaboration. People need people, energy needs energy and energy makes energy. Curation is an energy centre and focuses on the relationship with oneself and interacting with others through the arts, hence the collaborative narrative of the art show and the collaborative energies of the events.
All art and furniture in the space are available for sale on our website and within the space.
A little something more about Hayley…
I grew up in Canberra, Australia, and moved to Melbourne to study Interior Architecture for my university studies.
Following a few years in private corporate practice in Melbourne, I moved to London where I lived and worked for 6 years in the architecture, design and fine arts fields.
It was in London while I was designing a Law Firm’s office that I met my now husband who is American; he convinced me to move to the US as it was the greatest place on earth…! Actually that’s not true, he was happy in London and wanted to stay! It was me that, after living in Europe for so long, wanted to return to one of our homes to be closer to our families. So it just happened that the most interesting and exciting work opportunities existed for us at that time in New York. We lived for 2 years in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which was super fun and energetic and inspiring. It was the call of nature that made us make the move to Greenwich. While Brooklyn was fun and inspiring, it is also so deeply urban, something that was not ok for me going forward. As much as I live and breathe the art, design, culture, energy and inspiration of the city life, I am so glad that we now live amongst space and nature. The desire to open and start Curation was multidimensional but it was mainly to create an inspiring multi-disciplinary space for myself and others.
