On the occasion of the exhibition Willi Smith: Street Couture, Cooper Hewitt hosted a virtual discussion on the role of memory in recording and reflecting upon history. Moderated by Eric Darnell Pritchard, author and Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo, the panel featured Steven G. Fullwood, Archivist and Co-founder of the Nomadic...
Author: Ellen Lupton Ralph Caplan (1925–2020) was a writer and thinker. His 1982 book By Design: Why There Are No Locks on the Bathroom Doors in the Hotel Louis XIV, and Other Object Lessons appeared at a time when few people were addressing the everyday impact of design. His 2005 book Cracking the Whip is...
We are heartbroken and anguished by recent events. As Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III stated, “Once again, we struggle to make sense of the senseless. Once again, we bear witness to our country’s troubled history of racial violence, from Freddie Gray and Eric Garner to Sandra Bland and Trayvon Martin. Once again, we try...
This year, the Smithsonian Institution launched its Open Access initiative. Smithsonian Open Access invites you to share, remix, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. Discover Smithsonian Open Access with these five designs drawn from the Cooper Hewitt collection. What will you create? PRINT, FAUST IN HIS STUDY, CA. 1652, Rembrandt Harmensz...
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, National Design Award winners Design that Matters, threeASFOUR, and Open Style Lab are working to increase access to personal protective equipment for medical workers and face coverings for civilians. This article highlights their distinct strategies. Design that Matters In 2012, Design that Matters (DtM) received a National...
Can you spot 10 egg-shaped objects from the Cooper Hewitt collection hidden in the entrance of Carnegie mansion? Download and print the puzzle (includes answer sheet) This activity was created by Ann Sunwoo, graphic designer at Cooper Hewitt.
Aliki van der Kruijs is a Dutch designer who invented “pluviagraphy,” a technique with which she records the falling of raindrops on textiles and porcelain as part of an ongoing project titled Made by Rain. Made by Rain recently entered the permanent collection of Cooper Hewitt, following its inclusion in the exhibition Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design...
Now that we’ve moved happy hours, birthday parties, and celebrations of all kinds into the digital realm, we’re sharing designs drawn from Cooper Hewitt’s astonishing collection of wallcoverings—among the world’s largest—for you to use as backgrounds on your video conference calls. Think of it as an Immersion Room experience for your home. These wallcoverings take...
The exhibition Contemporary Muslim Fashions examines the ascendancy of the global modest fashion industry. On view are 80 ensembles, ranging from high-performance sportswear to haute couture, that showcase how emerging and established designers are meeting the needs of stylish Muslim women. For the exhibition, the San Francisco-area image consultant Saba Ali styled the mannequins’ head...
