Small Gift
Sanrio’s coast-to-coast celebration of 50 years of Hello Kitty and friends
For anyone who’s ever wanted to live inside their Hello Kitty pencil case, the cat character’s founder Sanrio is currently celebrating its 50th with Small Gift—a massive, national blow-out tour. Following last year’s global celebration of Kitty’s 35th anniversary last year, the parent company will host events at L.A.‘s Barker Hangar from 12-21 November before making its way to Miami for a celebration coinciding with Art Basel from 2-5 December. Small Gift Los Angeles is a Sanrio wonderland, complete with a Midway Carnival area that includes themed games like Hello Kitty’s Spilled Milk Bottle Toss, Little Twins Shooting Stars and Tuxedosam Bowtie Bounce as well as a video arcade, photo booths, two nine-hole mini-golf courses and a Ferris wheel that fans can ride.
Like Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary exhibit “Three Apples,” Sanrio again tapped curator Jaime Rivadeneira to select 50 artists for the show, which includes Gary Baseman, Kozyndan, Luke Chueh and Simon Legno.
To round it all out, the extravaganza will also have are food trucks serving up special Hello Kitty flavors and desserts, a pop-up shop for fans to indulge in their Kitty compulsion, workshops on craft-making and beauty, plus parties scheduled throughout the duration of the event.
The Small Gift tour U.S. cities through mid-December 2010 as a mobile pop-up shop, stocked with products like a skateboard from Girl, perfume from Demeter Fragrance and Sanrio collaborations with Lomography and Mimico.
