Parsons School of Design/Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies During the COVID-19 pandemic, designers, cartographers, and visual journalists visualized the invisible contours of an unfolding crisis. Organizations like The New York Times and Policy Map as well as individual artists and designers tracked the spread of the virus and...

A picnic in the park as a starting point. This is the first of the grand challenges posed by Secretary Wayne Clough for the new strategic plan of the Smithsonian. Here’s the explanatory sentence: “We will continue to lead the quest to understand the fundamental nature of the cosmos, using next-generation technologies to explore our...

Design for the Other 90% opened in Washington, DC on April 28, 2010 at the National Geographic Museum’s 17th Street galleries, through September 6, 2010. Admission is free. Photo: Megan Seldon, National Geographic Society, 2010 Alan Parente (left) and Rich McWalters of the National Geographic Museum install the Solar Home Lighting System, one of the...

Personally, I am partial to Richard Meier’s approach to architecture. According to Meier, a building is an act of “willful artificiality;” a “man-made” spatial construct that functions as a receptacle for experiencing the world of nature. Meier’s white walls act as nature’s film screen capturing ever-changing patterns of reflected color and light. While Meier credits...