Fairfax Dorn

Fairfax Dorn is the Principal of Fairfax Dorn Projects, an interior design and art collective founded in 2017. Fairfax Dorn is also the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ballroom Marfa. In partnership with Ballroom Marfa’s Board President and co-founder, Virginia Lebermann, and the Chief Creative Officer, Vance Knowles, Fairfax oversees the organization’s creative vision, having directed the artist and music-driven programming since its founding in 2003. Ballroom has produced over 100 new artworks and numerous exhibitions, performances, and film programs, including landmark projects such as Prada Marfa by Elmgreen & Dragset (co-produced with Art Production Fund), exhibitions with Agnes Denes, Peter Doig, Rashid Johnson, Teresa Margolles, Solange Pessoa, and Haroon Mirza’s stone circle. In 2010, Fairfax co-founded the Marfa Dialogues, a national platform exploring the intersection of art, politics, and culture.

Fairfax has been involved with the High Line’s public art program since its early development as a founding member of the High Line Plinth Committee.

Fairfax also serves on the board of numerous organizations including Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX; the Judd Foundation, Marfa, TX and New York, NY; Foundation of Art and Preservation in Embassies, Washington, DC; Calder Gardens, Philadelphia, PA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

Fairfax received the Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award in October of 2023, the E. William Doty Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Texas in February of 2022, the Rothko Illumination Award in May of 2019, and ArtTable’s 25th Future Women Leadership Award in April of 2005, alongside Virginia Lebermann. Fairfax and Virginia Lebermann recently published Ballroom Marfa: The First Twenty Years with Monacelli Press.

Faifax currently lives in New York City with her son.

Photo credit: Mark Schafer