French duo Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat, the co-founders and directors of New York's WantedDesign fair, have received France's Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for promoting the country's design talent in the US.
Hainaut and Pijoulat will receive the award, which is credited as one of France's highest honours, in recognition of their endeavours to bolster cultural relationships between the US and France.
"We are very honoured and proud to be part of the 2018 promotion receiving the prestigious title of 'Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'," said the duo in a joint statement.
"We feel highly grateful, and hope we will be able to trigger more French-American cultural exchanges and friendship in 2019 and beyond." Hainaut and Pijoulat are the co-founders of WantedDesign, which celebrated its eighth edition last year with installations like the Zero Waste BistroThe pair established New York's annual WantedDesign as a platform for showcasing design in 2011. The annual event has featured several French talents, such as Francois Brument, Philippe Nigro, Matali Crasset and Francois Azambourg
WantedDesign is also the main partner of the Oui Design Initiative, which was set up in 2016 to formally boost the cultural relationship between France and the US.
As part of Oui Design, Hainaut and Pijoulat produced the Transatlantic Creative Exchange, which teamed French and American designers to work on projects together, to be presented at ...