Deconstructing Power: W. E. B. Du Bois at the 1900 World’s Fair places decorative arts from Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection in dialogue with 20 of W. E. B. Du Bois’ innovative data visualizations. On loan from the Library of Congress, these groundbreaking visualizations document the progress of Black Americans and life inside the veil of systemic...
In this lecture, Dr. Bénédicte Gady explores the intersecting histories of the drawing collections of Cooper Hewitt and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Cooper Hewitt was founded as the Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration in 1897. It was deliberately modeled after the Parisian museum, which had been founded thirty-three years...
Designers Shahar Livne and Charlotte McCurdy in conversation with Caitlin Condell, Associate Curator and Head of Drawings, Prints & Graphic Design. Join us for a discussion exploring the ways in which designers consider the abundance of materials available to them in the 21st century. As the boundary between ‘synthetic’ and ‘natural’ materials becomes increasingly blurry,...
Jazz musician Victor Goines is the featured speaker for this year's Morse Historic Design Lecture Series.
Exploring Marguerita Mergentime’s life and career, reintroducing her ideas on modern design, informal dining, and joyful living.
From Cooper Hewitt's archives, a video of Gianfranco Zaccai (Continuum), Jon Marshall (MAP Project office), Scott Summit (3D Systems), and moderator Aimi Hamraie (Vanderbilt University) discussing the origins and future of universal design and accessibility.
[Partial video available only due to recording issues] In the rush toward modernity after the 1925 Paris Exposition, architectural and domestic metalwork gained prominence in the public eye, exemplifying the "art deco" mode. Using examples from Cooper-Hewitt's collection, curator and art historian Jewel Stern will examine the stylistic transition in metalwork during the late 1920s...
In the second of the Enid and Lester Morse Historic Design lecture series, Dr. Carolyn Sargentson will be lecturing on the theme of secrecy in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Paris, looking at the role of locksmiths in protecting the affairs of the heart, the home, and of politics, and revealing some of their strategies for developing...
It is difficult to believe that the works of art we now see in museums were originally intended for display someplace else. The inaugural speaker for Desigh [R]evolutions, Dr. Nicholas Penny will discuss where several famous paintings now in public galleries were originally intended to hang, and how lighting, heigh, wall color, frames, and the...
