What’s On

In this curator-guided tour of Acquired! Shaping the National Design Collection, visitors will explore the historical foundations and the future direction of Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. The national design collection, which has been part of the Smithsonian since 1967, is a living one that continues to grow and change as new works and ideas that... View full event details here.

Join us for a studio visit to Atlason, a New York City-based design firm and winner of the 2023 National Design Award for Product Design. Atlason is a strategic innovation and industrial design studio founded in 2004 by Hlynur Vagn Atlason. The studio designs consumer products, furniture, and packaging for a range of companies. Their recent designs include a completely recyclable and compostable packaging system for shipping plants, a lounge chair for healthcare settings that resists microbial growth, and an ergonomic refillable razor. View full event details here.

Explore Cooper Hewitt’s historic mansion and design your own dream house! Built for Andrew Carnegie from 1899-1902, follow a self-guided scavenger hunt to learn more about the museum when it was a family home that included a conservatory, a billiard room, and a cellar coal car traveling over a miniature train track. See the original floor plans and use them as inspiration to draw your own plans for a luxurious abode. View full event details here.

In conjunction with our latest exhibition, Acquired! Shaping the National Design Collection, we invite Cooper Hewitt members to join us for an evening with award-winning designers and weavers Helena Hernmarck and Elizabeth Whelan. In conversation with Acting Director of Curatorial, Matilda McQuaid, Hernmarck and Whelan will discuss the innovations and inspirations which define their practices. A light... View full event details here.

Explore Cooper Hewitt’s historic mansion and design your own dream house! Built for Andrew Carnegie from 1899-1902, follow a self-guided scavenger hunt to learn more about the museum when it was a family home that included a conservatory, a billiard room, and a cellar coal car traveling over a miniature train track. See the original floor plans and use them as inspiration to draw your own plans for a luxurious abode. View full event details here.

Acquired! A Conversation on Collecting This panel discussion explores the ways in which collections–both personal and institutional–express value systems, mark cultural shifts, and provide frameworks for organizing, understanding, and critiquing complex ideas as they are expressed by objects. Organized in conjunction with the exhibition, Acquired! Shaping the National Design Collection, this program gathers experts from... View full event details here.