Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum announced today the launch of its second nationwide competition for high school students. Organized in collaboration with Target, “National High School Design Competition: Good for All” invites students to submit design ideas that improve access to healthy, fresh foods for a community that lacks it. Three finalists will be selected to travel to Boston to meet with mentors from Food + Future, who will assist in finalizing their designs, and to New York for a concluding presentation to the judges. The winning design solution will be announced June 4 and will be featured at Cooper Hewitt during National Design Week Oct. 14–22 and at the Fenway Target store in Boston.
“Cooper Hewitt has long championed design’s vital role as a discipline for addressing humanitarian concerns,” said Caroline Baumann, director of Cooper Hewitt. “With nearly 30 million people living in ‘food deserts’ in the U.S. and the rates of obesity and diet-related disease at an all-time high nationwide, new models are needed now to ensure communities have access to healthy, fresh food. This competition opens the doors for teens to engage in the valuable problem-solving skills that design provides and learn how design affects every facet of daily life.”
“We believe Target’s sponsorship of the ‘Good for All’ design challenge not only furthers Cooper Hewitt’s mission of educating, inspiring and empowering people through design, but we also see this as a new, inclusive way to invite the next generation of designers—teenagers—to see design as a powerful tool of change, one that improves lives in ways that can be widely seen and deeply felt,” said Todd Waterbury, Target’s chief creative officer and Cooper Hewitt trustee.
The competition takes its inspiration from the museum’s current exhibition of 60 community-driven designs addressing economic and social inequality, “By the People: Designing a Better America,” on view through Feb. 26. When developing their concept—which can be an experience, a system, a place, a product or another novel, unexpected approach—students are encouraged to think like designers and consider how they can best reach communities on a broad scale, use resources efficiently, and create elegant, streamlined solutions.
Students must submit entries online by March 20 at cooperhewitt.org/designcompetition. Submissions will be judged on overall design excellence with particular attention to innovation, impact and relevance. Three finalists will be announced April 7, and featured on cooperhewitt.org. In mid-April, finalists will meet with mentors in Boston from Food + Future, a collaboration between Target, IDEO and MIT Media Lab, who will answer questions about the design process and make suggestions for each finalist’s concept. Finalists will then be flown to New York to present their designs to a judging panel, which includes (list in formation): Baumann; Katherine Darnstadt, founder and principal architect, Latent Design; Justin Gold, founder, Justin’s; Waterbury; and Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant and founder of the Edible Schoolyard Project. The winner, who will also be invited to New York City for the Teen Design Fair during National Design Week and to visit Target’s headquarters in Minneapolis, will be announced June 4.
The National High School Design Competition is an extension of Cooper Hewitt’s educational outreach initiatives targeting teens, including DesignPrep, which offers free in-depth design education programs to more than 1,200 New York City high school students each year, introducing them to college and career opportunities in design; and Design in the Classroom National, which introduces design thinking and learning to teachers who reach 1,000 high school students each year in six pilot cities, with plans underway to expand the program nationwide.
For more information about the National High School Design Competition, including eligibility requirements, submission guidelines, rules and conditions, and resources for students and teachers, visit cooperhewitt.org/designcompetition. The website also features a comprehensive design lesson plan that teachers may use to encourage their students to participate in the challenge.
Organized by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in collaboration with Target.
ABOUT COOPER HEWITT, SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM
Founded in 1897, Cooper Hewitt is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. Housed in the renovated and restored Carnegie Mansion, Cooper Hewitt showcases one of the most diverse and comprehensive collections of design works in existence. The museum’s restoration, modernization and expansion has won numerous awards and honors, including a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy, a Gold Pencil Award for Best in Responsive Environments and LEED Silver certification. Cooper Hewitt offers a full range of interactive capabilities and immersive creative experiences, including the Cooper Hewitt Pen that allows visitors to “collect” and “save” objects from around the galleries, the opportunity to explore the collection digitally on ultra-high-definition touch-screen tables, and draw and project their own wallpaper designs in the Immersion Room.
Cooper Hewitt is located at 2 East 91st Street at Fifth Avenue in New York City. Hours are Sunday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden and Tarallucci e Vino cafe open at 8 a.m., Monday through Friday, and are accessible without an admissions ticket through the East 90th Street entrance. The museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Public transit routes include the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 subways (86th or 96th Street stations), the Second Avenue Q subway (96th Street station), and the Fifth and Madison Avenue buses. Adult admission, $16 in advance via tickets.cooperhewitt.org, $18 at door; seniors, $10 in advance via tickets.cooperhewitt.org, $12 at door; students, $7 in advance via tickets.cooperhewitt.org, $9 at door. Cooper Hewitt members and children younger than age 18 are admitted free. Pay What You Wish every Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m. The museum is fully accessible.
For further information, call (212) 849-8400, visit Cooper Hewitt’s website at www.cooperhewitt.org and follow the museum on www.twitter.com/cooperhewitt, www.facebook.com/cooperhewitt and www.instagram.com/cooperhewitt.
ABOUT TARGET
Minneapolis-based Target Corp. serves guests at 1,803 stores and at Target.com. Since 1946, Target has given five percent of its profit to communities, which today equals more than $4 million a week. For more information, visit Target.com/Pressroom. For a behind-the-scenes look at Target, visit Target.com/abullseyeview or follow @TargetNews on Twitter.