Year: 2024

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5 Questions with…Christina L. De León
Christina L. De León is Cooper Hewitt’s acting deputy director of curatorial and inaugural associate curator of Latino design. Since 2017, she has grown the museum’s collection of U.S. Latino and Latin American design, while also organizing exhibitions, public programs and bilingual digital content. In 2021, De León produced the museum’s first feature-length documentary film, Mud...
The words "Making Home" appear in large red type against a lavender background. The words "Smithsonian Design Triennial" appear in smaller, black type against a lavender background.
“Making Home” Opens Nov. 2 with 25 Site-Specific Installations
“Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial,” opening Nov. 2 at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, features 25 debut commissions that illustrate the ways design is embedded in contemporary life. Ranging from domestic objects to built environments to social systems, the exhibition considers home as an expansive framework with varying cultural and environmental contexts, and “making home” as a universal design practice. Organized in collaboration with Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, the seventh iteration of Cooper Hewitt’s Triennial series will be on view through Aug. 10, 2025.
A watercolor featuring a silhouette of the Empire State Building against an ivory colored background, with a detailed depiction of an industrial site in the foreground.
Autumn in New York
Lean into the shifting season with this selection of autumnal objects from Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection.
Elissa Black Joins Cooper Hewitt as Deputy Director
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the appointment of Elissa Black as deputy director, effective Sept. 9. Deeply experienced in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors, Black brings more than 20 years of executive leadership to the role. She has worked nationally and internationally on strategy, vision and short- and long-term planning for museums and cultural organizations, overseeing the development and implementation of dynamic cultural programming, as well as managing complex financial and administrative functions.
A Closer Look: What Fun Is a Font if You Can’t Play with It?
A look at the specific challenges and opportunities of collecting and displaying digital media.
How to Sell a Heater During a Revolution
Discover a collection of designs for stoves invented and produced by Ollivier’s Manufactory during the tumultuous period of the French Revolution.
Symbols as Synecdoche: Creating Community Identity
How do symbols represent communities?
The words "Making Home" appear in large red type against a lavender background. The words "Smithsonian Design Triennial" appear in smaller, black type against a lavender background.
Cooper Hewitt Announces “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial”
This fall, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial.” Featuring 25 site-specific, newly commissioned installations, the exhibition explores design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional realities of home across the U.S., U.S. territories and tribal nations. On view Nov. 2 through summer 2025, “Making Home” is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established in 2000 to address the most urgent topics of the time through the lens of design.
A Closer Look: Displaying a Medical Model
Cooper Hewitt's mount maker discusses the challenges of displaying an object with a complex surface structure.
Our Search for Symbols, 2024
Henry Dreyfuss's team collected thousands of symbols for the Symbol Sourcebook. What might a Symbol Sourcebook, crowdsourced in 2024 with your submissions, look like?
The Library Is Open: Queer Texts and the Designers Who Enabled Them
The worlds of design and writing collide in this exploration of published work by LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Pop Art & ’60s Vibes: Wallcoverings by or Inspired by LGBTQIA+ Designers
Get to know wallcoverings (and a shopping bag) by LGBTQIA+ designers and artists in pop art and 1960s aesthetics.
A Closer Look: Objects from Algae
When dealing with experimental materials, such as algae and other bioplastics, conservators must consider the benefits of display with potentially unexpected outcomes.
Photograph in color of an interior with a series of large street signs with symbols arranged in a display space. Lights illuminate them. In the foreground is a plant toward the bottom right corner.
Signs of the Times: The Original Symbols Exhibition, 1972
To celebrate and promote the publishing of the Symbol Sourcebook in 1972, an exhibition of symbols was staged in New York City.
“A Library of Decorative Art”: The Decloux Collection of Ornament Prints
What are ornament prints and how did Cooper Hewitt come to own the premier collection of such works in the United States?