Ep. 210: Marva Griffin Wilshire on 25 years of SaloneSatellite and Showcasing Creativity
Frequently referred to as the godmother of Italian design, Marva Griffin Wilshire, grew up in a large family in Venezuela, reading House & Garden and rearranging the furniture. Drawn to Italy in the 1970’s, she landed a job as a secretary for Piero Busnelli, founder of B&B Italia, which opened up her entire world. She was introduced to architects and designers, getting a first-hand look at the inner workings of Italian design. Since then, she’s committed herself to giving young designers a chance to showcase their creativity – most notably by founding the wildly successful SaloneSatellite which welcomes emerging designers worldwide.
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TRANSCRIPT
Marva Griffin: Young people are the future. They needed to show their creativity, so I try to help them in the best way I could, that’s it. That’s the motivation.
Amy Devers: Hi everyone, I’m Amy Devers and this is Clever. Today I’m talking to Marva Griffin. Marva, among other things, is the founder and curator of Salone Satellite - Many long-time listeners have heard us refer to Salone del Mobile, also called Salone (for short), or Milan Furniture Fair in english - it’s a major trade show that takes place in Milan, Italy every year since I961. Salone is the largest tradeshow of it’s kind and is widely considered to be the global epicenter of design for furniture, lighting and all manner of home & hospitality decor. Marva founded SaloneSatellite 25 years ago, as a special event within Salone, that represents a showcase for young creative designers and graduate-to-be students from universities and design schools from all over the world. In it’s 25 years of existence, it’s impossible to calculate the enormity of the impact of SaloneSatellite - it’s launched thousands of careers, generated boundary and discipline-spanning partnerships and collaborations, and introduced the global design community to the profound talents, and refreshing perspectives of the next generation of creativity - and vice versa. Marva was born in Venezuela, and Milan became her city of adoption when, in the seventies, she started to work in the field of design and furnishing. She began her career in PR communication at what was then C&B Italia (now B&B Italia), working with owner and chairman Piero Busnelli. She became a correspondent in Italy for a number of Conde Nast Publications: French Maison & Jardin, Vogue Decoration, American House & Garden and American Vogue. In addition, for more than 20 years she’s been directing the International Press Office for Salone del Mobile, and since 2016, an Ambassador of Italian Design with countless awards and accolades to her name, In May 2014, she received the very prestigious COMPASSO D'ORO XXIII Lifetime Achievement Award. Known as the godmother of Italian Design, Marva is also lovingly referred to as “La Mamma” by the young designers she’s championed. As you'll hear - she’s wise, generous, curious, optimistic and a profoundly powerful ally for the creative… Here’s Marva..
Marva: My name is Marva Griffin, Wiltshire, I’m from Venezuela and I live in Italy since the early 70s. I was in the University Perugia, learning Italian and was also into journalism and I wanted to write and read the right language. So then I came to Milan and I started working in the design industry. I started working at a company that at the time was one of the most important furniture companies in Italy and maybe in the world. It was at that time C&B Italia, now it’s B&B Italia. And then after my career I started working with magazines for the Condé Nast magazines, the French Maison & Jardin and Vogue Decoration and American House & Garden. And then I did also for Vogue, for Gourmet, for Conde Nast publications in New York. And then I started organizing shows and I ended in Salone in the organization of the Salone del Mobile in Milano, in Milan Furniture Fair, which is the largest furniture fair in the world. I was organizing some shows there and directing all the international press. Because every year we have around 5,000 journalists coming from 180 countries to attend the Milan Furniture Fair.
Amy: A lot of work and you’re at the center of it all and we are very grateful for your contributions. if you wouldn’t mind, I would love to know a little bit more about you and your early years, if you could pull up some of the things that captured your imagination in your youth and some experiences that made indelible impressions, that may have been instrumental in leading you to where you are?
Marva: Since I was a child I was always at home, I’m one of eight brothers and sisters, five girls and three boys and we were raised with my mother, my father and my grandmother in a large home and it’s a large home, beautiful home with a beautiful garden. And I was always taking care of the… let’s see, since a child, the core of my home. I was always very much inclined about moving around the furniture at my place, cleaning up and setting up and cutting the flowers from my mother’s flower garden and that was it. And with my pocket money I was buying, at that time, from very early I was buying American House & Garden.
Amy: Okay.
Marva: And I was so lucky at the end, while in Milan, I was named correspondent for these magazines here in Italy, so that’s my story.
Amy: That is a wonderful story. I’d love to ask you about cinema? I understand your father ran the four cinemas in your home town and you spent the weekends at the movies.
Marva: Yeah.
Amy: Do you think that that kind of storytelling has played a role in your…
Marva: Also, of all the many things that played a role, there’s so many things involved, but the cinema was, because if we had good behavior during the week, on weekends we had free entrance to the cinemas to see some… to see a lot of movies, so that was it. It helped a lot. I’m still very interested in movies, like the other night I went where it was like 5:00 in the morning, Italian time, when the…I saw all the Oscar ceremony. So I’m very much interested about movies, about cinema.
Amy: Do you also pay attention to production design and costume design and all aspects of the creation of a cinematic endeavor?
Marva: Yeah, I pay attention to all what is surrounding this subject, all that’s happening, the production, the actresses, actors, what’s happening, the settings and everything. I really much enjoy it.
Amy: I ask because I’m sure… and we’ll get there when we start to talk about SaloneSatellite, but that’s a production in and of itself which is of huge proportions, and so much has to come together and to me it reminds me of an Oscars or a kind of show of that scale that requires such syncopation with everybody involved in order to create this amazing spectacle that leaves a lasting impression and sets the discourse for the coming year around design.
Marva: Yeah, it is. Today I think that what I’m interested in, all of these all that is happening, if I put them all together, what is the link. For me it’s interesting because we’re looking… going to a cinema, looking at a movie, there’s so many things involved and it’s sometimes related to the design. I find always something that may interest me in a movie, which is related to design or which is related to fashion or it’s related to the furniture and decoration and so on. Everything is put together. It’s interesting, it’s very interesting.
Amy: I think so and that makes sense. I’d love to hear about your transition to Milan in your early career, I mean doing PR for C&B Italia, which became B&B Italia, really immersed you in this world of Italian design.
Marva: I was very, very lucky to answer, there was an ad in the newspaper that was for the CEO of the C&B Italia, it was at the very beginning of this very important company at the early 70s. And then this Mr Busnelli, who was the CEO, with his partner, Cesare Cassina, he had no secretary at that time. At that time the word ‘assistant’ did not exist. Now it’s assistant, but there was a beautiful ad asking for someone who knew several languages, who was able to travel, to translate, because they spoke Italian and their dialect from their region. So I got the job and it was very, very interesting. It was at that time all the topic iconic architects that are really… the design of the 50s, launching the real Italian design, were there. And Mr Busnelli was very… I don’t know if he was clever or not, but he said to me I should not have an office, but my desk will be in his office. So he wanted me to know, to be aware of all what was happening to this company. And I was very, very lucky to sit there and see all these architects walking in with the paper, the idea of a piece of design and then able to see all the developing of these pieces that are now iconic pieces from the early 50s.
Amy: What a fascinating education. Were you just soaking it up, did you enjoy that aspect of it?
Marva: Of course. (Laughs) This is the reason why I am able to do what I’m working now because I learned so much about all these major designers that are now… there are very few that I can call, they’re alive, like Gaetano Pesce, who I’m sure you have known, he lives in New York, he’s 86 years old and he’s still around doing fantastic things. And Mario Bellini, they were in their early 30s or whatever, so it was fabulous what I learned from all these people. And travelling also with Mr Busnelli and Mr Cassina, all over the world, opening markets and visiting companies, like DuPont de Nemours in Wilmington, Delaware, or Herman Miller in Grand Rapids, their headquarters. Because this company was using all their materials, so it was very interesting. In Germany, Bayer with all the polyurethane that was used for all the furniture, all the seating, cushions and the seating. I always say I will never have learned in any design school what I learned in the four years I was there.
Amy: Wow!
Marva: And at the same time, there was no communication office. I started with a communication, while travelling with them I was seeing and inviting press to promote the company, to promote the products. And I developed the communication and PR office, which I did when I quit, when I left working fulltime in the company. I was asked by Mr Busnelli, after Condé Nast asked me to work with them. He said, but you’re not going to any competitor, to any company, you should continue to do the communication as a freelancer. Which I did, I asked Condé Nast France and they said they agreed and I continued to do it for like 15 years after.
Amy: I have a couple of questions. You had mentioned earlier languages were important to you. How many languages did you speak during those four years and how important was that to the work you were doing with Busnelli?
Marva: Well four and a half.
Amy: Four and a half languages? Impressive!
Marva: Yeah!
Amy: Well, it makes sense to me that you’d be at the center of international press with your diversity of languages, because I’m sure a big part of communication is understanding how to translate messages across cultural boundaries. I would love to know what compelled you to move from this position to Condé Nast, what were you interested in and was this a sort of… a pull to go to those magazines…
Marva: As I said, I was approached, journalism, so Condé Nast was magazines, okay, so I was asked, they needed someone in Italy to run the magazines, to be correspondent of the magazines for Maison & Jardin, which was the French House & Garden. And then Vogue Decoration, which was a top-top class magazine, we built it, I saw the… we started it from the very, very beginning. And then while doing this work for Condé Nast France, the editor and chief of American House & Garden came to Milan and he said to me… he approached me and said, “Marva, you’re doing a good job for the French, you have to do it for us.” So then I started doing the same work for American House & Garden. And then, I don’t know, they all started, Condé Nast Traveler, American Vogue, when Anna picked up American Vogue I was also doing collaboration for Vogue. So that’s it, that’s the story with magazines.
Amy: These were the magazines you were looking at as a child. On some level was it very… did it feel like a resolution or a confirmation?
Marva: No, I was lucky (laughs) to end up… what I loved as a child, and looking at, I worked… when I wrote to my mom saying I’m becoming a correspondent for American House & Garden, she said to me, “It’s incredible Marva that you…” she’s Spanish, she used to call me Marvita, it’s Spanish, she’d say, “Marvita [foreign language 0:18:42].” It’s incredible that you’re doing this work for these magazines that you loved since you were a child. I’m a lucky person and I dream and my dreams come true.
Amy: (Laughs) That’s a wonderful power and quality. I really want to hear the origin story of SaloneSatellite. It’s such an important show across the globe and it champions and offers a showcase of emerging designers which really helps young designers get their feet under them in terms of the industry. I just would love to hear from you what compelled you to found this show and how it’s evolved over the years?
Marva: Well, in 1997 I was still collaborating with… I was organizing a show, fabrics for furnishing in Venice with incredible brands that started doing fabrics for furnishing. They were in the fashion world, fabrics for fashion and now they started for furnishings. That was like Etro and Monteiro. And then the CEO of Salone who knew me because I was… since the very first year I started working with C&B, I was involved with the fair, with Salone del Mobile, because C&B Italia was one of the top exhibitors in this fair, so I knew him. So I used to invite him, he used to come to Venice to see what I was doing there and he would see all the press I was inviting. Because in the meantime working for the magazines, I had a lot of colleagues around the world, when I go to the fairs and so on. Anyhow, he said to me, “Marva, I want you to come to Salone del Mobile, Marva, I need you there.” So I came to Salone and I started working. I’m seeing a show, the accessory show for Salone and then what I was also… I was still working for my magazines and during the week at Salone I would go around the city to see all what was happening. And I always wanted to visit, to see what the young designers were doing. Some of these young designers knew me, knew who I was and they just started begging me, Mrs Griffin, we know you are linked to Salone del Mobile, want to be there, we want to be inside because we are here, those who could afford it, they will rent a space and be in the city to see, in very small spaces, to show their creativity.
But their interest, what they were after was not really fully what they wanted it. Because they wanted it to show their creativity to the manufacturers, to the producers, in order to mass produce their creativity. And the only way to show this was to be inside Salone del Mobile. So they start asking me about this. So I spoke to the CEO of Salone, at that time was Mr Manlio Armellini was the CEO for Salone and I told him about this. I said, listen, the young people… anyhow, days after, or weeks after he called me and he said, “Marva, there is a space,” in the meantime they were given a space by the Milan Fairgrounds. There is a space where you can have what you’re thinking of. And he said to me, see what you can do to bring in the young people into the fair, into Salone, because at that time, this was 1997, there were no institutions, no fair taking care or putting attention to these young people, these young designers. There was really a need to show their creativity. And this is the whole start, this is the story. I got this place, I did a project, I went back home to my studio and I got a project, I think of it. I did a few calls, phone calls to Paris, to New York, I spoke to colleagues, I told them what I was doing and this is the start of SaloneSatellite. I did this for this meeting with him, was at the end of November and I had to then… that was Christmas, I went home and I started working for the issue three months, because the Salone was in April. That’s it.
Amy: You had three months to pull off the first SaloneSatellite in 1998?
Marva: Yeah, yeah, because at the end of November, when we agreed and then it was… I had a meeting in New York and I had a meeting with my great friend, and he was the editor in chief for House & Garden, it was the one who hired me for House & Garden, who was Louis Gropp. I spoke to Louis and I told him and I said to him… I’m going to start doing this for young designers. And I will love to maybe invite schools because maybe they will be bringing the graduates to come to Salone, to participate. And they will be the ones, once graduated, they would come to SaloneSatellite. And he said to me, “Marva, you know what? We have a reportage in House & Garden with Parsons School of Design. And he put me in touch with Tony Whitfield, who at that time was running there. So Parsons was one of the first schools I invited. I was in New York and I had the time to speak to him. When I got back to Italy I told Mr Armellini what I was going to do with the schools and that’s the start of it.
Amy: I am so happy to hear that story. I had the really good fortune of being in Satellite two years later in the April 2000 Satellite with Rhode Island School of Design. I exhibited my work with fellow students. (Laughs)
Marva: In 1998 I had eight schools and one of the international was Parsons from New York and I had German… and then Italian schools. In these 24 years of Salone, I have more than 300 international schools from all over the world. And they’re still asking, some of them when they come to know, they’re still asking to participate because they’re invited. And I give them a free space to participate in order to bring along a selection of their graduates to be, who work on a project, or separately or a common project, to show their creativity and they see all what’s happening in the fair, in Salone del Mobile, they go around to visit all the pavilions, all the exhibitors. And once graduated, they’re coming back to SaloneSatellite as an exhibitor themselves to show their creativity.
Amy: And it is a foundational door opening community building experience that absolutely helps to, I think speaking from the position of a young designer as I was in 2000, it just helps to understand the landscape of global design so much more intricately. But not only that, but to feel a part of it and to make friends who are also engaged in it. It’s a really, really important experience…
Marva: This is very interesting because you have all these Japanese with American and Italians with Koreans, it’s very, very interesting because in many schools they all get together, they’re there and they exchange from there… you have this start, like our connection, our working together with a partnership soon after, we still continue, so it’s interesting for them.
Amy: I want to thank you for that. And now 25 years later I am now faculty at Rhode Island School of Design and RISD is exhibiting again at Satellite and I’m very excited for this exhibition. And I want to ask you how the show has evolved over the years? Obviously it’s grown to 300 schools from eight…
Marva: Yeah, from eight to now 300 in a total every year Salone Satellite has a subject. And last year this subject was the schools. The name was ‘Design schools and universities building the impossible.’ So it’s going to be very, very interesting.
Amy: Everyone is very excited about this.
Marva: And so we have also Royal College of Art and this year we have 22 schools coming.
Amy: Amazing! Amazing! I want to ask you personally; this is an enormous contribution to the design world and to emerging designers. But what personally matters most to you about this whole endeavor? It’s an incredible amount of work and work that you’ve nurtured and cultivated for 25 years, what is most important to you, Marva, about this?
Marva: Listen Amy, time runs so quickly, so for me 25 years, 1998 for me was yesterday, really, my commitment was, I knew this young designer, and listen, I was raised in a family as I said, eight brothers and sisters. I have like 18 nephews and I was always surrounded at home by young people, from every age. And it’s beautiful, I love to be around young people, I’m a mother of one son and I think young people are the future. They needed to show their creativity, so I try to help them in the best way I could, that’s it. That’s the motivation.
Amy: That is beautiful, thank you. You’ve been doing this for a while but you sound younger than most in terms of your energy, enthusiasm and passion. I want to ask you, we talked earlier about all of these things influence your language, cinema, your interest in rearranging furniture and arranging flowers, all factors into your overall creativity and throughout your career you’ve exercised your creative agency with regard to communication, curation, building a platform, the Satellite and cultivating its important and prominence. How would you mentor someone who aspires to something similar as you, but maybe in another industry?
Marva: First of all for me, I’m a very curious person. I want to see everything. I would love for the day to have… the working day, instead where I say 10, I come into my office at 9:30, maybe I have a break because I live close to my office. I go home for lunch, if I don’t have a working lunch appointment, which happens weekly, two/three times in a week. And then I’m here until 7:00 because of the timing, with New York or with Australia, Japan and Seoul, I have to stay here. But anyhow, I want to see all what is happening. And living in a city like Milan, the offer is incredible, even though while you’re here and you don’t know where to go, you will say oh, what should I do here? I’m very interested in music, I’m a subscriber of concerts at La Scala, I want to see all what is happening with art. I have great friends. So I enjoy. I’m a golfer.
Amy: You’re a golfer? I love it!
Marva: So on weekends…I don’t practice it that much because I have a replacement in my left knee, so I have to be… sometimes I do it, but I used to a lot. I am very proud to say that I have quite a lot of cups that I won in tournaments.
Amy: I love learning this about you. (Laughs)
Marva: I have a very, for me, I love doing my life and so on. I try to enjoy myself.
Amy: It sounds like it. I’m having some envy here; I would love to live a few days in your shoes or in your world at least. You’ve also described yourself as optimistic and it sounds like your optimism… kind of keeps you…buoyant with energy for these things that you’re curious for and for the work that you do.
Marva: Yeah. I always go ahead, I do it, if it doesn’t work, try again, that’s my motto.
Amy: Have you ever been in a state where your optimism has been shaken? And if so, how do you recover? How do you bring yourself back?
Marva: Of course not everything is beautiful every day, you have ups and downs. But I try to stand up again, that’s it, as I said. If it doesn’t work today and I think that tomorrow it will, that’s it. It works. Of course sometimes I’m down, I try to be the most positive in life.
Amy: You’ve been interviewed a kazillion times over the years…You have been interviewed; people have contacted you to tell your story.
Marva: ‘Abbasta,’ you know what abbasta means?
Amy: No?
Marva: Abbasta, it’s enough.
Amy: Enough, okay. (Laughter)
Marva: It’s enough. It’s enough. It’s enough. There were some nice interviews, some there was… I don’t know if you read what came out last year in PIN-UP magazine, you saw that?
Amy: Yes, I read that, that was a great interview.
Marva: And Michelle Wilkinson from the museum, from the Afro-American Museum in Washington, she was very nice, very clever to, she interviewed me and we became friends. And she wanted to know everything. She ended up saying that I should write a book and I said no, why should I write a book? And she said, “Marva, you have to do it.”
Amy: I do want to let you know Marva, people are more interested in you and your personal story than you might believe. And I’m really grateful for you being here today and sharing so much of your story. For those of us that are visiting Milan for Design Week this year, in addition to SaloneSatellite and Salone del Mobile, what else should we be paying attention to? What would you like to highlight?
Marva: There will be a show, an exhibition on SaloneSatellite, it’s called Universo Satellito, SaloneSatellite Universe. And the curator is this design critique Beppe Finessi and it will be in Triennale Milano, Triennale is considered the design museum, if the design museum and many other things for the city of Milan. So it’s going to be there, opening on Tuesday the 16th and they should come all. They should visit Salone del Mobile in row, where you were there with your school. Because we have more than 400,000 visitors, retailers, architects, all the people involved in this design work coming from abroad, wants to visit Salone del Mobile. We as press, because you know I also am running the press for Salone, I travel since November with the president Maria Porro, who is for the first time the President of Salone and is a young woman, a lady, 40 years old with three children and her grandfather is one of the founders of Salone del Mobile 62 years ago. And with her, we travel and the general manager, we travel to more than 14 cities in the world from Shanghai to… the only two places I didn’t go, Maria and myself, we did not go was to Las Vegas and Chicago where the general manager with the marketing manager went. But we had from Shanghai to Paris, London, Copenhagen, Berlin, Miami, Toronto, I was alone in Toronto, then Dallas and New York. I did last week… last week I was in Madrid and now Saturday I’m heading to South Africa, Johannesburg and Cape Town, where I have conferences in three universities to be addressing the young students there and then I have a talk as an ambassador for Italian Design Day in Johannesburg and Cape Town. And then back to Milan, we’re starting soon after Easter, we have to start going to the fair, to the setting of all that’s happening.
Amy: My goodness Marva!
Marva: It’s a very, very busy time.
Amy: Very, very busy. Your energy and stamina is impressive, to say the least.
Marva: .I always say Salone is a big, big cake and everyone wants to take a piece of the cake during that week, okay? So there are things interesting like, you know, something that I recommend to go and see is organized by Gilda Bojardi which is the editor in chief of INTERNI magazine. She puts together, at the University Statale, you will find it in the guide, that is all over, a very, very interesting program of inviting architects of doing installations, very, very interesting. That’s very important to see.
Amy: Okay.
Marva: And then Salone del Mobile, when you come into Salone, you will see there also we have guides and you will see on our website, we have incredibly important talks. We have like this year, the first talk would be conducted by architect Francis Kéré, you know who he is. Francis Kéré, who won the Pritzker award as an architect, and he’s conducting a talk. Then we have another… a Japanese architect, then we have the director of the Design Museum in London. Every day from Wednesday we have this program at 11:00. And then in the afternoon we will have a top Italian architect, maybe Mario Bellini, who also is one of the iconics, he’s 89 years old. And he will be giving a message to all these youngsters about his career, because he has been a designer, very, very famous, with Cassina and B&B Italia and several… and he’s an architect, also doing great things. And this will be SaloneSatellite. And then we have the awards ceremony on Wednesday, presided by the President Paola Antonelli from MoMA and they will give an award to the young designers. And they as a jury will decide who is the winner. And there will be a round table with those eight designers who were in SaloneSatellite in the past and now they are internationally very, very important designers. And the last talk will be with Nasir Kassamali who owns this company Luminaire in Miami, that now he sold it. He sold it to a group. But he is an incredible person and he also will deliver a message to all these young designers related to marketing, how to approach the market with their designs and their creativity. So that’s all what’s happening. There’s quite a lot of things happening. Quite a lot of things happening.
Amy: Quite a lot, all very nutrient dense. So you’re supporting these young designers in so many ways, not just through getting them exposure to the international manufacturers, but also to the whole global design community, but you’re also creating opportunities for education and exposure to lifelong careers. I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the work that you’re doing Marva and for the contributions you’ve made, this is really important and I’m grateful. So thank you for sharing your story and thank you for talking with me today and good luck with all of your very, very busy schedule and I hope I get to meet you sometime soon.
Marva: Thank you, yeah, thank you so much.
Amy: This has been amazing.
Marva: Thank you all the best, ciao-ciao.
Amy: Hey, thanks so much for listening for a transcript of this episode, and more about Marva, including links, and images of her work - head to our website - cleverpodcast.com. While you’re there, check out our Resources page for books, info, and special offers from our guests, partners, and sponsors. And sign-up for our monthly substack. If you like Clever, there are a number of ways you can support us: - share Clever with your friends, leave us a 5 star rating, or a kind review, support our sponsors, and hit the follow or subscribe button in your podcast app so that our new episodes will turn up in your feed. We love to hear from you on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter X - you can find us @cleverpodcast and you can find me @amydevers. Clever is hosted & produced by me, Amy Devers, with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan and music by El Ten Eleven. Clever is a proud member of the Surround podcast network. Visit surroundpodcasts.com to discover more of the Architecture and Design industry’s premier shows.
Clever is produced and hosted by Amy Devers with editing by Mark Zurawinski, production assistance from Ilana Nevins and Anouchka Stephan, and music by El Ten Eleven.
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