A LIBRARY PROGRAM WITH ARTIST MEGUMI SHAUNA ARAI & DESIGN LIBRARIAN JENNIFER COHLMAN BRACCHI

Join us for Design Index, a new public program series at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library, where contemporary designers, artists, and creatives are invited to explore the library and select materials to be viewed, pondered, and discussed with a design librarian and small group of attendees. Program participants will get a behind-the-scenes look at the resources that inspire today’s designers and artists while they develop their work.

For the inaugural  Design Index, artist Megumi Shauna Arai has been researching various aspects of her current work, including silk, ornament, pleating, and draping. During the program, the materials Arai has been studying and referencing during the last three months at the library will be on view, highlighting her current index of research, inspiration, and interests.

About the Library
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library is the largest design library in the United States for books, trade catalogs, magazines, photographs, and archival material covering design and decorative art from the Renaissance to the present.

SPEAKERS

Megumi Shauna Arai (Artist) is based in New York City. Investigating literal and metaphorical borders and the notion of belonging, her work sits at the intersection of textile and painting. Through the language of abstraction, by way of the physical process of folding and layering, her work focuses on points of encounter, betweenness as a practice of embodiment, and the material and immaterial as interconnected. Selected exhibitions include Group Shop Show, Bridget Donahue Gallery (2024), Summer Arrangement: Object & Thing at LongHouse Reserve (2023), The Third Kind, Management Gallery (2023), Object & Thing at Madoo: Megumi Shauna Arai and Frances Palmer (2022), At The Noyes House: Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM and Object & Thing (2020), Lore: Reimagined, Wing Luke Museum (2018) and Midst, Jacob Lawrence Gallery (2018). Recent residencies include Headlands Center for the Arts and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Alternative pedagogy teaching collaboration includes Field Meridians, an art-based urban ecology curriculum in Central Brooklyn and The Mothership, an eco-feminist art and ecology center founded by Yto Barrada in Tangier, Morocco.

Jennifer Cohlman Bracchi is the Head Librarian at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Library. She came to Smithsonian Libraries and Archives in 2003 by way of the museum where she served as its first digital imaging specialist. Her interest in digitization led to earning a Masters in Library and Information Science from Queens College, CUNY. She has led numerous grant-funded digitization efforts for rare books and special collections and oversees Cooper Hewitt Library’s contributions to mass digitization programs including the Biodiversity Heritage Library. She has served on Metropolitan New York Library Council’s (METRO) Digital Services Advisory Council and Digital Grants Review Committee. She curated her first exhibition Color in a New Light (February 2016 – May 2017) for Smithsonian Libraries at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. She co-curated the expanded exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 2018 – March 2019) for Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum with Susan Brown, Associate Curator of Textiles.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Program Length: 90 minutes
Interactivity Level: Medium to High
Intended Audience: Adults, people interested in design, art and design history, rare books, and libraries
Please arrive by the start time of 5:30 p.m. No entries will be permitted after 6:00 p.m.
From August 26 through November 1, the museum galleries will be temporarily closed for the installation of Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial.

ACCESSIBILITY

Location: This program will take place in person in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library at Cooper Hewitt. The entrance for the library is located at 9 East 90th Street, New York, NY. A Cooper Hewitt staff member will meet all program attendees at the entrance and escort them to the Library. The Library is on the second floor and fully wheelchair accessible. There is also an accessible restroom on the second floor. Read more about accessibility at Cooper Hewitt.
What to Expect: This program will include an illustrated presentation with slides followed by an audience Q&A and opportunity for the attendees to view and handle selected books. 
For general questions, please email us at CHEducation@si.edu. If we can provide additional accessibility services or accommodations to support your participation in this program, email us or let us know when registering. Please make your accommodation request as far in advance as possible—preferably at least one week before the program date when possible.