A decade ago, Christine Vendredi — then global director of art, culture, and heritage at Louis Vuitton — came to Palm Springs looking for an architectural backdrop for Nicolas Ghesquière’s Cruise Collection fashion show.
“He wanted something space age,” Vendredi says, adding that she had a book of John Lautner architecture in her office and recalled the flying saucer–like roof on the hilltop Bob Hope House — a perfect match for the retro-futuristic fashion line.
When she came to the desert to scout the iconic residence, she was captivated by Palm Springs’ bounty of midcentury modern treasures. From then on, she made the trip to Palm Springs every time she was in Los Angeles. “This is how I discovered the [Palm Springs Art Museum],” she says, noting she saw several exhibitions, including Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe, Robert Longo’s Storm of Hope: Law & Disorder, and The Modern Chair.
In April 2024, she joined the museum as its chief curator. A year later, she became its interim executive director. And, this fall, she dropped the “interim” label, bringing with her more than two decades of expertise and an ambitious vision: transforming the museum’s 16,000-piece collection into a bridge between the Coachella Valley’s rich narratives and the cultural conversations shaping the world.
Vendredi’s résumé reads like a cultural passport — directing exhibitions and commissions in Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Milan, and Los Angeles. Additionally, she has authored books on architecture, taught art history at Keio University in Tokyo, and speaks French, English, Japanese, and Czech.
Yet it’s her gut-deep connection to Palm Springs that drives her work.
“California exerts a soft power over French culture,” Vendredi says, referring to the sun, Hollywood, and the distinctive light and space. “This is the land of Apple, the land of video gaming, where Frank Gehry can build Walt Disney Concert Hall, where you have one of the most incredible institutions in the world: the Getty.”
