Milan Design Week is again upon us, and soon tens of thousands of designers, collectors, enthusiasts, and professionals will descend on the Italian design capital for a weeklong tour of everything that Salone Del Mobile and the swelling cluster of Fuorisalone activities around town have to offer. Making the trip is always rewarding, but the inbox-clogging headache of getting it all together in the whirlwind weeks leading up verges on futile. (We don’t recommend making showroom visits while recovering from a post–Bar Basso negroni hangover, either.)

Seasoned connoisseurs know that it’s simply impossible to fit everything in, so our editor cut through the noise and rounded up an admittedly non-exhaustive guide to the activations, installations, and product debuts that shouldn’t be missed. They range from a visit to Alcova’s takeover of Villa Borsani and a pit stop aperitivo at Marimekko’s Bar Unikko to an energizing dialogue about design issues with Formafantasma.

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In 2018, Faith Ringgold addressed a packed auditorium at the Brooklyn Museum for a conversation with her daughter, the art historian Michele Wallace. The address was timed to the landmark exhibition, “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power.” After a standing ovation, a crowd of 300 took to their seats in breathless silence as the artist, children’s book author, and civil rights activist recounted a lifetime of achievement and changemaking against insurmountable odds. That late September day lept to the minds of each audience member and millions more on Saturday evening, when news broke that Ringgold had died at the age of 93.

There are a fortunate few among us who learned of the artist’s life and career not from the internet, but from Ringgold herself. This morning, they will recall the tenderness with which she spoke of Robert Newman, the first gallerist to invite her to stage a solo exhibition in New York in 1966. It was during the summer leading up to that show that Ringgold created a body of work that would go on to become a cornerstone of the Civil Rights movement and the cultural ephemera that has survived it in the succeeding decades.

There, among the conservatism of Midtown’s stiff-lipped gray suits, three of Ringgold’s works depicted the graphic tensions at the heart of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. One went on to be exhibited at MoMA—one of the city’s landmark museums that Ringgold protested against for its legacy of sidelining Black women artists—is a testament to her larger-than-life impact. Even at the age of 87, Ringgold remained impassioned about art’s highest purpose. “There is a way,” she said that day in Brooklyn, “to understand people who neither look like you or have had your experience. And that way is through their visual art.” Through her visionary paintings, picture quilts, children’s books, and activism, she paved the way for countless future generations to shape the future with their own art.

We’re normally captivated by the goings-on between the walls of far-flung getaways. Yet, looking at the coastal charm of Xique Boutique Hotel, its facade commands the most attention. Estudio Carroll clad the eight-room property in chukum, a pinkish tree sap resin that’s a part of the hotel’s larger vision of environmentalism. Floor-to-ceiling pivot windows, along with rounded exterior corners and slatted wood panels in lieu of glass windows on higher stories, act as natural climate control and promote airflow. Of course, guests can always take a dip in the rooftop pool to cool off, too.

Amos Goldreich has dedicated his architecture career to building socially minded spaces that enrich people’s lives, but now the London-based designer is looking inward. At Milan Design Week, he reveals his most personal project yet: Tamart, a new collection of midcentury-inspired furniture pieces dedicated to the memory of his late parents Tamar de Shalit and Arthur Goldreich, who collaborated on everything from jewelry and painting to buildings and textiles.

Last week, Project for Empty Space took to the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Badass Women Art Awards, its annual celebration of women’s ingenuity in the art world. This year’s awards honored Pratt Forward founders Mickalene Thomas and Jane South, as well as Maria Grazia Chiuri and Karishma Swali, who have forged a working relationship between Dior’s couture ateliers and India’s Chanakya School of Craft. Guests enjoyed galvanizing speeches from the honorees and a performance from vocalist Nia Drummond over a multi-course dinner, and wines from IBest.

When was it? April 10

Where was it? The Angel Orensanz Foundation, New York

Who was there? Rebecca Jampol, Jasmine Wahi, Rosamund Pike, Anne Pasternak, Derrick Adams, Kennedy Yanko, Isolde Brielmaier, Ashley James.

When: Until March 17

Where: National Building Museum, Washington, DC

What: Frank Lloyd Wright dreamed up many projects for the Southwestern Pennsylvania region from the 1930s to the ‘50s, but not everything was realized. A series of realistic animated films explores how the American architect’s vision of the future—a monumental reimagining of the Point, the Rhododendron Chapel—could have impacted urban, suburban, and rural life.

After designing for Antwerp-based jewelry label Kim Mee Hye for seven years, Kimy Gringoire took a hiatus and worked as a design consultant before launching her eponymous jewelry brand in 2021. Each piece embodies Gringoire’s unparalleled attention to how it moves with the wearer, while subtle punk references combine narrative design with understated elegance.

Surface Says: Kimy Gringoire combines poetry, gemstones, precious metals, and philosophy to inimitable effect, creating fine jewelry that speaks to a life of travel and romanticism.

Here’s an AI contrarian’s account of speaking at a recent AI conference.

The party has ground to a screeching halt for Coachella’s glitziest rental mansions.

The late O.J. Simpson’s infamous white Bronco is parked at a Tennessee museum.

Jane Goodall’s 90th birthday is celebrated with a charity sale of nature photography.