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View Winners → Tournament of Roses® Announces 2017 Float Judges
Arts Sep 21, 2016
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– Photo by Terry Miller
Phil Rulloda, Ronnie Siegel, and Carol Togneri to Select 2017 Float Award Recipients
The Tournament of Roses has selected Phil Rulloda, Ronnie Siegel, and Carol Togneri to be float judges for the 128th Rose Parade® presented by Honda.
The judges will grant awards based on many criteria, including creative design, floral craftsmanship, artistic merit, computerized animation, thematic interpretation, floral and color presentation, and dramatic impact.
The Tournament of Roses will announce the award-winning floats the morning of Jan. 2, 2017, at the Tournament House.
“Our Rose Parade float judges bring uniquely diverse skills to the judging process that greatly will assist them in the challenging task of judging each of the parade’s incredible botanic masterpieces,” said Brad Ratliff. “Each float is designed, built, and decorated by individuals who leave a small, but valuably personal, piece of himself and herself woven into the tapestry of each floral presentation. Each member of our esteemed panel of judges understands the theme, ‘Echoes of Success,’ and is distinctly qualified to understand the role that each person plays in creating these beautiful works of art.”
Phil Rulloda is one of America’s chief evangelists for floral design, celebrating his 54th year as a florist – an Ambassador of Sentiment.
Having amassed an incredible number of awards in national and international design competitions, Rulloda has presented more than 500 programs to tens of thousands of professional florists. He was the 2004 recipient of the Society of American Florists’ Tommy Bright Award, in recognition of his lifetime achievement in floral education and commentary. In 1991, he was the first recipient of the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) Award of Design Influence and, in 2007, Rulloda and wife Cathy Hillen-Rulloda were honored and received AIFD’s Award of Distinguished Service to the floral industry.
Rulloda was invited to the White House to assist in Christmas decorating and has been a visitor in many foreign countries at the invitation of heads of state.
He is director of the Southern California School of Floral Design in Anaheim. Rulloda cites his two primary mentors and sources of inspiration as Silverio Casabar and Buddy Benz, but says, “I learn from everyone I come in contact with.”
Additionally, he says he is not so proud of his own accomplishments, but instead considers the measure of his worth by the many students who have gone on to excel in the industry. His goal has, most-importantly, been to educate, motivate, and provide inspiration to his audiences and students. To his many students, he states, “You are my legacy.”
Ronnie Siegel, principal of the firm Swire Siegel, is an award-winning landscape architect who designs parks, playgrounds, school campuses, and residential gardens primarily in the Los Angeles area.
After receiving her master’s in landscape architecture from University of Pennsylvania, Siegel began her career in New York City, where she worked on a wide range of parks and public spaces, including a major program to renovate large areas of Central Park. She opened her own firm in 1982 and since then, Swire Siegel Landscape Architects has completed more than 300 projects including schools, parks and playgrounds, major public spaces, and both large and small private estates and residential gardens.
Swire Siegel relocated to Southern California in 1987 and has been a staunch champion and leader in the movement for sustainable landscapes, especially water conserving designs. Siegel is personally committed to developing and creating nature-based play and learning environments for children, from preschool to high school. She has teamed with child care centers, school districts, and municipalities, to reinvent traditional play spaces with a more nature-based focus for urban children. Her designs promote learning through the exploration of nature and an appreciation of the local environment.
Siegel is thrilled and honored to be a part of this year’s Rose Parade, which has been highlighting the Earth’s flora for more than 100 years. You can find out more about Siegel and her firm at: www.swiresiegel.com.
Carol Togneri is the chief curator at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, where she has worked for the past 15 years. Prior to her current role as chief curator, Togneri served as research scholar and senior curator at the museum.
Togneri began her career of 24 years at the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1978, first in the department of paintings and later as manager of the Getty Provenance Index.
Her main areas of interest are European paintings before 1900 and the history of collecting. Togneri shares her knowledge and passion of art through published works and lectures. Her lectures include: “Norton Simon, Henry Huntington, and J. Paul Getty: Three Southern
California Collectors” and “Pendants and Partners: A Reunion of Paintings.” Her published works include: “The Travel Diaries of Otto Mündler 1855–1858,” and “Collections of Paintings in Haarlem, 1572–1745.”
Togneri credits her big Italian family as her “Echoes of Success,” for inspiring her to love art history, culture, and museums.
She received her bachelor’s and master’s in art history from CSULA and wrote her thesis on
“Giovanni Battista Crespi and the Patronage of Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Milan.” Togneri was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley and lives in Pasadena.
