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Join designer Jennifer June, founder of Loose Parts, for a hands-on workshop exploring modular design through wall-mounted objects. Using a system of interchangeable components, participants will create their own functional piece (whether a hook, a small shelf, or a hybrid form) designed to adapt to everyday needs.

Working with pre-cut, pre-drilled boards, you’ll assemble your piece using bolts and connectors. A curated assortment of Loose Parts hardware and wall mounts will offer opportunities to experiment with structure, composition, and function.  

Along the way, you’ll explore how simple, flexible systems enable customizable and reconfigurable designs, resulting in a finished object that’s ready to hang and evolve with you.  

About the workshop series 

Led by top designers, this hands-on workshop series explores both historic and contemporary design methods inspired by works in your national design collection. Open to all experience levels, each making session offers a unique opportunity to roll up your sleeves and come meet and make with the designers of our time.

GUEST DESIGNER 

Jennifer June is a designer and maker whose work explores the relationship between materials, process, and place. Through her studio, Loose Parts, she builds furniture and modular cabinetry that bridges craft and system, pieces shaped by hand yet grounded in clear structural logic. Her work has been featured in Dwell, Business of Home, Metropolis, Core77, and Upstate House, and exhibited at Alcova in Milan, ICFF and WantedDesign in New York, and Upstate Art Weekend. She has been teaching at Parsons School of Design since 2019. She lives and works in the Hudson Valley. 


ACCESSIBILITY & WHAT TO EXPECT:    

  • Format: The program will begin with a brief welcome and close looking in the galleries. The speaker will give a short presentation followed by a hands-on workshop, including time to ask questions and engage with other participants. 
  • About the space: This program will take place in Cooper Hewitt’s Lecture Room on the ground floor of the museum. It is fully wheelchair accessible. There will be seating. There is an accessible restroom on the ground floor. Read more about accessibility at Cooper Hewitt.  
  • Accommodations: If we can provide any accessibility services to support your participation, email us at CHEducation@si.edu or let us know when you register. Please make your request as far in advance as possible—preferably at least ten days before the program date. 

SUPPORT 

Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection received major support from Jon and Shigemi Iwata, and Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer. Additional generous support has been made by Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation, Irene Au and Bradley Horowitz, and Chris and Irma Fralic. This project received funding from the Smithsonian’s “Our Shared Future: 250,” a Smithsonian-wide initiative supported by private philanthropy and created to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary and advance the Smithsonian vision for the next 250 years.

Logos for the Smithsonian’s “Our Shared Future: 250," the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art.