Author: Laurie Bohlk

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The words "National Design Awards" appear in white on a multi-colored gradient background.
Cooper Hewitt Announces 2023 National Design Award Winners
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.
Cooper Hewitt to Present “An Atlas of Es Devlin” in Fall 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.
Two rows of three equally sized images of objects in Cooper Hewitt's digital collection, including a website, font, emoji and app.
Cooper Hewitt Announces Formal Establishment of the Digital Curatorial Department
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.
Alan Dye Joins Cooper Hewitt’s Board of Trustees
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the appointment of Alan Dye to its board of trustees.
Cooper Hewitt Announces Curatorial Team for 2024 Smithsonian Design Triennial
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today, Feb. 8, announced the next Smithsonian Design Triennial, set to open in fall 2024, will be organized by Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, curator of contemporary design and Hintz Secretarial Scholar at Cooper Hewitt; Christina L. De León, associate curator of Latino design at Cooper Hewitt; and Michelle Joan Wilkinson, curator of architecture and design at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Focused on diverse contemporary perspectives on home, “Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial” marks the first time curators from two Smithsonian museums will collaborate on this flagship exhibition series.
Five oblong wooden loom shuttles scattered across a fabric in progress in a loom.
Cooper Hewitt To Present Monographic Exhibition on Designer and Weaver Dorothy Liebes
This summer, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present the first monographic exhibition in more than 50 years on designer and weaver Dorothy Liebes (1897–1972). Among the most influential designers of the 20th century, Liebes shaped American tastes in areas from interiors and transportation to industrial design, fashion and film. On view July 7 through Feb. 4, 2024, “A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes” will feature more than 125 works, including textiles, textile samples, fashion, furniture, documents and photographs.
Grid of various symbols appearing largely in black and white, with a few symbols marked in red.
“Give Me a Sign: The Language of Symbols” Exhibition To Open This Spring at Cooper Hewitt
From the stop sign to the laugh-cry emoji, symbols play a critical and ubiquitous role in everyday life. A forthcoming exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, “Give Me a Sign: The Language of Symbols,” will examine the fascinating histories behind many of the symbols that instruct, protect, entertain, empower and connect people. Presented in the Design Process Galleries on the museum’s first floor, the exhibition will be on view May 13, 2023, through Sept. 2, 2024.
“Hector Guimard: How Paris Got Its Curves” and “Deconstructing Power: W. E. B. Du Bois at the 1900 World’s Fair” to Open this Fall at Cooper Hewitt
Furniture, metalwork, ceramics, drawings and photographs will transform the second floor of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum into early 20th century Paris in two parallel and complementary exhibitions, “Hector Guimard: How Paris Got Its Curves,” opening Nov. 18, and “Deconstructing Power: W. E. B. Du Bois at the 1900 World’s Fair,” opening Dec. 9.
Bright, prismatic graphic pattern with a center logo in white type reading "NATIONAL DESIGN AWARDS"
Cooper Hewitt Announces 2022 National Design Award Winners
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the 23rd class of National Design Award winners, honored for design innovation and impact in nine categories. Established in 2000 as a project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards bring national recognition to the ways in which design enriches everyday life. Winners are selected by a multidisciplinary jury of practitioners, educators and leaders from a wide range of design fields.