Free-blown glass vase with pale blue, purple, and gold-toned iridescent body, its shape is a depressed sphere with a squarish opening that has a turned-down rim. Three irregular thick ribs line the sides diminishing to points at the base.
Year of Glass: Imitating the Ancient
Start the 2022 Year of Glass with a modern glassmaker inspired by ancient Roman models.
A Year of Responsive Collecting at Cooper Hewitt
A collecting initiative, launched in 2020, aims to help Cooper Hewitt to acquire objects that shape and define our time.
A black ink line drawing with washes of dark grey on off white paper depicting what appears to be a scene of people viewing an art exhibition. On the right a dark-skinned figure sits facing the viewer on a round-backed chair, to the figure's left is a blackamoor sculpture of an ornately dressed, very dark-skinned figure. To its left and behind is an array of figures, rendered in dark grey shadow, viewing various artifacts around the room, including a sculpture of a boat filled with figures, an ornate hanging tapestry and a radio blasting sound represented with jagged lines.
Artifacts of àlá: An Afrofuturist Lab
Explore the Afrofuturist lab of a young explorer in 2077.
A Commercial Artist with Ideals
For nearly twenty years between the two world wars, E. McKnight Kauffer, an American, was the most celebrated graphic designer in England. He was best known for his eye-catching posters, but his book covers and illustrations, graphic identities, carpets, stage sets, costumes, and ephemera were also among the most arresting of his era. Kauffer believed fervently that modern art should move beyond the walls of museums and galleries to infiltrate all elements of daily life.
Design Retrospective: Writing with Open Access
This article  was written by Jono Brandel, new media artist and team lead for Writing with Open Access. It is the first in a series of Design Retrospectives on the prototypes commissioned by Cooper Hewitt’s Interaction Lab as part of Activating Smithsonian Open Access in Spring of 2021.  Introduction It was a series of interviews...
Composite image of two photographs, both picturing an exhibition of geometric structures in a brown wooded room.
Cooper Hewitt + The Smithsonian Institution: Becoming the Nation’s Design Museum
On October 7, 1976, Cooper Hewitt opened, joining the Smithsonian and becoming the nation’s design museum. Learn how that came to be.
The Potential of Creative Commissioning: Learning from Activating Smithsonian Open Access
Activating Smithsonian Open Access (ASOA) was born from a conversation that took place in June of 2020, while much of the world was locked down. Millions of jobs evaporated overnight, and those working in the creative and gig economies watched incomes, projects, and years of hard-won programmatic gains in the arts and humanities vanish without...
Collage of six empty museum spaces meant to symbolize open possibilities for museum experience
OPEN CALL FOR WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS: Transforming Museum Experience with the Interaction Lab
Building on the work presented in Tools and Approaches for Transforming Museum Experience, Cooper Hewitt’s Interaction Lab will offer a workshop series this fall 2021 for two separate cohorts of 20 museum practitioners and leaders across visitor experience-related disciplines who are currently working on transformative museum experience projects.  The definition of a transformative museum experience...
Open spread of an illustrated book. On the left is a full-page black-and-white image of two elongated figures looking at a third figure that resembles a full moon. On the right is the book's title page. Two figures are embedded in intricate foliage. A rectangle with a blank background contains the title: "Salome: A Tragedy in one Act : Translated from the French of Oscar Wilde : Pictured by Aubrey Beardsley"
There’s Something About Salome
When Salome requests a severed head on a platter, be careful what you wish for. Or write. Or draw. In 1894, Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley—both considered enfants terribles of Victorian England for their provocative work and lifestyles—produced a printed edition of Wilde’s play Salome. Wilde’s psychological centralization on the character of Salome and Beardsley’s...