Margate Beaux Arts Ball
2010 Limbo Arts, Margate, UK

Inspired by William Van Allen's costume of his Crysler Building for the Beaux Arts Ball in New York 1931, Harold Offeh invited participants to make and then dress-up as their favourite buildings from Margate, before parading along the Seafront and taking part in an exhibition at the Substation.

The New York Beaux Arts Ball was a high-society event where a group of architects (including William Van Alen, architect of the Chrysler Building,) dressed up as the buildings they designed. Offeh describes the original event as a combination of ‘a highbrow architecture prize and a Butlins fancy dress contest’. He says, “I’m very interested in how people might respond to local architecture, and which buildings they think are worth celebrating. Perhaps Pete’s Fish Factory is more important to some than the Sea Bathing Hospital – who knows?”