| October 6, 2025 — Guild Hall is proud to announce the launch of The Innovators Talk Show, a new conversation series spotlighting the business and cultural leaders who are reshaping their industries and doing game-changing work. This initiative is presented as part of Guild Hall’s Community Pillars, a business membership that supports the cultural and economic fabric of our region.
The inaugural event takes place Friday, October 17, from 5:30–7:30 PM and promises to be a generative evening of ideas and networking. For Episode 1, Andrea Grover will sit down with Malcolm Carfrae, Founder and Principal of Carfrae Consulting and former Head of Communications at Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, for an in-depth conversation on creativity, strategy, and the evolving landscape of amplifying brands.
Carfrae is one of the most respected voices in global communications. With a career spanning two decades at the helm of world-renowned brands, he now advises clients across fashion, luxury, retail, and hospitality on bespoke strategies that drive global recognition and cultural relevance.
Andrea Grover, a pioneering curator and nonprofit arts leader with over 25 years of experience, brings a unique perspective to the series. As Executive Director of Guild Hall since 2016, she has led a transformative campus renovation and championed forward-thinking projects and interdisciplinary programming.
“This series is about celebrating growth and evolution in business and staying relevant in a rapidly evolving environment,” said Andrea Grover. “We want to spark conversations that are as relevant to the East End as they are to the global stage.”
Attendees are invited to a post-talk reception to connect with business owners, entrepreneurs, and community members.
The Innovators Talk Show is part of Guild Hall’s broader mission to build a stronger, more vibrant East End community through the arts. As a historic civic arts institution founded during the Great Depression, Guild Hall has long been a catalyst for creativity, dialogue, and economic vitality.
Tickets are $20 ($15 for Guild Hall Members), and free for Community Pillars, a business membership that provides named acknowledgement and shows your support for the arts.
To purchase tickets to The Innovators Talk Show, visit guildhall.org.
For additional information on becoming a Community Pillar visit: GuildHall.org/Pillars.
Pictured: Andrea Grover. Photo: Jessica Dalene. Malcolm Carfrae. Photo: BFA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANDREA GROVER
———
Andrea Grover is a curator, writer, and nonprofit arts leader with 25+ years of experience with socially engaged and interdisciplinary artistic practices. She is the Executive Director of Guild Hall, a historic civic arts institution in East Hampton, NY, founded during the Great Depression with a mission to build a better society through the arts. From 2022–25, she led a transformative renovation of the Guild Hall campus, modernizing its 1930s-era infrastructure to support contemporary performance, exhibition, and education. She simultaneously created an interdisciplinary program team that provides thought partners for new works like the recently developed First Literature Project (Shinnecock language revitalization in VR) by Wunetu Wequai Tarrant and Christian Scheider.
Grover began her career in community-centered art by founding Aurora Picture Show, Houston, in 1998, a nonprofit moving image art center originally located in her home, a converted church in the Sunset Heights. Her curatorial focus has long included artist-led experiments in public space, alternative infrastructures, and cross-disciplinary inquiry. While Curator of Special Projects at the Parrish Art Museum, she launched initiatives such as Parrish Road Show, Platform and PechaKucha Night Hamptons, and received a Tremaine Foundation grant and ADAA Curatorial Award for Radical Seafaring, a landmark exhibition of artists creating works on the water. At Carnegie Mellon University, she curated 29 Chains to the Moon and Intimate Science, exhibitions about artists’ solutions for global problems.
Through her writing and curating, she frequently engages themes of art, science, and social change. She has served on panels for the Pew, Rauschenberg, and Pulitzer Foundations, and taught at the University of Houston and Texas Southern University. She is a past fellow of the Warhol Foundation, Center for Curatorial Leadership, and Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from Syracuse University.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MALCOLM CARFRAE
———
Malcolm Carfrae, Founder and Principal, Carfrae Consulting, was born in Sydney, Australia and educated at both the University of Sydney and the University of California at Berkeley, where he achieved his Master’s Degree in History. Carfrae began his career in communications at Bryan Morel Public Relations in London, where he oversaw multiple fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands.
In 2003 Carfrae relocated to New York City as Vice President of Public Relations at Calvin Klein, Inc. In 2008, he was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, overseeing all communications for all CKI brands globally including the oversight of Public Relations, Corporate Communications, Special Events and Celebrity Relations. In 2014, Carfrae joined Ralph Lauren as Global Head of Communications, Public Relations and Media. In this role, he was tasked with oversight of Corporate Communications, Public Relations, Public Affairs, Philanthropy, Special Events, Celebrity Services, Social Media, Employee Communications and Media Buying for all brands globally including Ralph Lauren Collection, Polo Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Home, Denim & Supply, Lauren and Chaps.
Carfrae left Ralph Lauren in May 2016 to establish Carfrae Consulting, a global branding and strategic communications consulting firm based in New York. Drawing on his expertise in worldwide communications, media, marketing and brand building over the past twenty years, Carfrae works with clients in the fashion, beauty, retail, luxury, shelter, hospitality and travel sectors to create bespoke strategies to achieve global recognition and success. His experience demonstrates a proven track record of building and executing creative, innovative and customized 360-degree solutions across a wide variety of categories and international markets.
Carfrae is the co-founder of the Australian Fashion Foundation; a US based nonprofit organization which supports emerging fashion talent in gaining international experience and mentorships. Carfrae is a mentor for the Incubator Program of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and is on the Board of the Australian Fashion Chamber.
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Guild Hall is the cultural heart of the East End: a museum, performing arts, and education center, founded in 1931. We invite everyone to experience the endless possibilities of the arts: to open minds to what art can be; inspire creativity and conversation; and have fun.
Guild Hall has served four generations and introduced audiences to the most storied artists and performers of our time. As we approach our centennial, we have completed a state-of-the-art renovation to match the caliber of our artistry for twenty-first-century audiences. The facility-wide Capital Improvements Project & Campaign includes top-of-the-line physical and technological enhancements to better deliver on our mission as an artist-driven, interdisciplinary institution.
For more information about Guild Hall, please visit GuildHall.org.
@GUILD_HALL #GUILDHALL
|
