Press Room

Members of the press can view information for museum news and events and access the press release archive.

Press materials, including high-resolution images for publication, are available through the password-protected Press Images and Resource Gallery.

Ashley Tickle
Director of Communications & Marketing

Laurie Bohlk
Associate Director of Communications & Marketing

Contact information for media only:
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Department of Communications & Marketing
2 East 91st Street
New York, NY 10128-0669
Telephone: 212-849-8420
Email: CooperHewittPress@si.edu

February 27, 2024

This March, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present “Acquired! Shaping the National Design Collection,” an exhibition highlighting how the museum acquires new work to shape the collection to better reflect current issues and design’s evolving role in daily interactions. Presented on the second-floor galleries, the exhibition will feature more than 150 works, including objects that represent the museum’s collecting legacy, as well as works brought into the collection since 2017 that demonstrate what it means to be a design museum today.

February 8, 2024

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum announced today that it has received a donation of $1 million from Cooper Hewitt trustee Kimberly Schuessler and Smithsonian National Board member Morgan (Mac) Schuessler, Jr. The gift will bring to life the museum’s exhibition and engagement programs through funds for operations and projects that elevate design on the national stage.

August 15, 2023

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the winners of the 2023 National Design Awards, recognizing design innovation and impact in 10 categories. Now in their 24th year, the National Design Awards bring national recognition to the ways in which design enriches everyday life. Award recipients are selected by a multidisciplinary jury of practitioners, educators and leaders from a wide range of design fields. The winners will be honored at an Awards celebration Thursday, Oct. 5 at Cooper Hewitt.

July 14, 2023

Cooper Hewitt will present “An Atlas of Es Devlin” from Nov. 18 through Aug. 11, 2024. The genre-defying British contemporary artist and designer Es Devlin (b. 1971) is globally renowned for her large-scale, illuminated installations and sculptures for performances. Her wide-ranging practice, which began in small-scale theater, has been experienced by millions in some of the world's most prominent museums, galleries, opera houses, arena and stadia. Her highly collaborative work is at once deeply personal and inherently collective. Devlin views the audience as a temporary society and invites public participation in communal works to encourage profound cognitive shifts.

March 9, 2023

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the formal establishment of the Digital curatorial department, which will collect and care for born-digital work. This new collecting department will be led by Andrea Lipps, the founding head of digital, who will frame, build and manage the digital collection and its stewardship. The Digital department is the first entirely new collecting department at Cooper Hewitt in more than 125 years. Founded in 1897, the museum’s collection has historically been organized in four curatorial departments: Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design; Product Design and Decorative Arts; Wallcoverings; and Textiles.

February 9, 2023

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the appointment of Alan Dye to its board of trustees.

Featured Image: Installation view of "How Posters Work." Photo by Matt Flynn.