Hara: Space Diva™
Head to the stars with Hara: Space Diva™ and her intergalactic band of alien musicians for a stellar adventure full of music and mayhem! As the lead singer of her own rock band, this stellar diva is always ready to stand front and center ~ taking on the audience (and any trouble) head on!
Originally envisioned as a no-nonsense, crime-fighting superheroine from outer space, Hara: Space Diva's™ initial appearance was dramatically different in her 1995 debut.
Rockefeller Center 1995
Thanks to the combined efforts of Ellen Rixford, and The School of Visual Arts' (SVA) Gallery & Exhibitions Department, the students of SVA's puppet class were able to display their "other-wordly" creations in Rockefeller Center during the holiday season of 1995. Hara was about to have her "fifteen minutes of fame". The holiday windows were such a success that they remained up until mid-February, and were reviewed in the following New York Times Article:

FOR CHILDREN by Dulcie Leimbach
December 22, 1995
(excerpt)
Aliens do not do winter that much differently from the way you or I do. These six new holiday windows explore the notion that outwordly creatures have an Earth-bound holiday whirl of their own.
The windows were designed by students from the School of Visual Arts, working under a teacher there, Ellen Rixford, a designer of puppets and displays. The windows' themes include baking, a musical "Joy to the Universe" and "Dressing for the Party," in which the main dress, a virgin-white satin, is like the Bethlehem star that beckoned through the night...
"Dressing for the Party" was designed by
Roberto Mendoza and Francine Kaplan.
Artist's Personal Note:
Unfortunately, Hara's "fifteen minutes of fame" felt like only nine. She now resides deep inside a storage center encased in a plastic garbage bag where officials will find her velvet and foam, bedazzled body decades from now. Alas... poor Ophelia. |