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Small Talks are intimate evenings featuring presentations by speakers who represent a broad spectrum of visual culture. Expose yourself to various passions, disciplines, ways of working, and ways of seeing. Join fellow members in the Bumble and bumble auditorium in the Meatpacking District (after wine and hors d’oeuvres in the library) for a series that is sure to inspire and inform.

Florent Morellet is a leading New York City social activist and restaurateur. Since immigrating to New York from France in 1978, he has been a leader in issues ranging from gay rights, AIDS and abortion, to architectural preservation and urban planning. He has made his renowned Restaurant Florent, in the heart of New York’s Meatpacking District, a springboard for grassroots activism.

Florent has also been involved with the right-to-die movement for the past 20 years. He is a national board member of Compassion & Choices and president of Compassion & Choices of New York. He was co-chairman of Save Gansevoort Market, a coalition of community leaders dedicated to preserving the character of the meatpacking district through landmark designation by the City of New York. He is also a trustee of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

Working locally to support national change, Florent has organized bus trips to carry New Yorkers to Washington for rallies and marches: 300 for the Pro-choice March in 1992, 500 for the Gay Rights in ’93, Peace in Oct ’02, Anti-war, ’03, and Pro-choice, again in ’04.

Florent is also a mapmaker-artist who exhibits his work in New York, Germany, France and in 2007, Luxembourg.

Douglas Riccardi has worked with Florent Morellet since 1986 when he was a designer at M&Co. Since then he’s been an Art Director at Egg magazine in Manhattan, and at Benetton SpA and Sottsass Associati in Italy. Upon returning to New York, Douglas founded Memo Productions and began working again with Florent on the restaurant’s branding. Together they have created posters and invitations to political rallies, and Oscar night, Bastille day celebrations, election night, Halloween and New Year’s eve celebrations.

In addition to Restaurant Florent, Memo Productions provides brand development and design services to clients including Mario Batali, Definitions Private Gyms, Jeffrey Beers Architects, the Allen-Stevenson School, Hale and Hearty Soups and Pour wines.

An avid gardener and cook, Douglas also studies piano with Nurit Tilles, sings with the Dessoff Choirs and teaches typography at the School of Visual Arts.