With her butterfly wings, this artfully draped female figure would seem more at home decorating a theater than ornamenting U.S. currency. Yet the designer, Walter Shirlaw, clearly labeled his drawing “Bank Note Design.” Shirlaw left school at the age of twelve and apprenticed himself to a bank note engraving company, believing that it would help...
In conjunction with the exhibition By the People: Designing a Better America, Cooper Hewitt collaborated with IBM to host a hands-on workshop that explored design thinking and the tools required to meet social, economic, and climate change challenges. Guest designers and By the People exhibitor Anthony Schloss from Brooklyn’s Red Hook WIFI initiative shared how their...
Announcing “Game Changers,” a new series of design conversations with influential and innovative practitioners, thinkers, and industry leaders across design disciplines. The series launches on April 21, with a conversation between Cooper Hewitt Senior Curator of Contemporary Design Ellen Lupton and game changer Tim Brown, the CEO and President of IDEO, a world-renowned innovation and...
The Education team was excited to take a field trip to Washington DC to be part of the Smithsonian Education Innovation Awards. Although, we often travel for individual programs, this was one of those rare chances where the whole team got to travel together. After a short flight and a nice celebratory lunch, we headed...
Two years ago, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum closed for renovations and the opportunity opened up to explore a school-based program: Design in the Classroom. This free 45-minute, single visit workshop introduces K-12 students to design thinking. In short, design thinking is a term describing the way designers critically assess the "things" all around us....
Cooper-Hewitt's Education team spent an amazing week in New Orleans with 26 educators from New York City, San Antonio, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. Although their day jobs include teaching subjects from across the curriculum, including math and science as well as social studies and history, they all became designers for the week and solved...
This is the second year Cooper-Hewitt's Design Educators are going into New York City schools and leading free design workshops! Target Design K-12: Design in the Classroom web site has a revised Teacher Resource Packet that includes all the valuable feedback given by teachers who participated last year. Registration is now available on-line for the 2012-2013 school year. Target Design K-12 Design...
Ready, Set, Design is one of our favorite educational activities here at Cooper-Hewitt. We use it as a way to introduce the concepts behind “design thinking” to all kinds of groups– from kindergartners to professional designers to museum trustees. It’s very adaptable, and lots of fun! Watch this video to learn how you can use...
Target Design K12: Design In The Classroom is a unique, FREE program for K-12 teachers in New York City. The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will come to you for a 45 minute session that’s adaptable to any subject area. A special focus on teamwork, brainstorming and problem-solving through design thinking will equip your students with...
