Current Exhibitions

A woman interacts with a screen where blobby cut outs of facial features float around with white lines going everywhere

Face values: exploring artificial intelligence

Presented in Cooper Hewitt’s Process Lab, Face Values: Exploring Artificial Intelligence is an immersive installation that explores the pervasive but often hidden role of facial-detection technology in contemporary society.

Learn more about Face Values: Exploring Artificial Intelligence.

Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master

Coinciding with the centenary of the founding of the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, this exhibition presents rare works by the groundbreaking graphic designer Herbert Bayer (1900–1985). As a student and teacher at the Bauhaus, Bayer helped shape the discourse of modern graphic design. After leaving the Bauhaus in 1928, he worked in Berlin, where he designed commercial advertising and typefaces. He emigrated in 1938 to the US, where he worked as a designer and became a lifelong spokesman for the Bauhaus, amplifying the school’s mystique.

Learn more about Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master.

Nature by Design: Selections from the Permanent Collection

Triptych. Watercolor-like illustration of three red fish swimming in pale green water. Rough brown vessel in smooth brown pouch. Orchid model photographed against black background.

To accompany the special exhibition, Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, Nature by Design presents a rotating selection of extraordinary design drawn from Cooper Hewitt’s collection of over 210,000 objects, inviting visitors to discover how nature and design have intersected in the past and continue to converge in our world.

Learn more about Nature by Design: Selections From The Permanent Collection.

Contemporary Muslim Fashions

Organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, this pioneering exhibition examines how Muslim women—those who cover and those who do not—have become arbiters of style within and beyond their communities. Contemporary Muslim Fashions features approximately 80 ensembles drawn from established and emerging designers in high-end fashion, streetwear, sportswear and couture, as well as about 40 photographs to contextualize the garments on view.

Learn more about Contemporary Muslim Fashions.

Wyss Institute Selects

Diptych. Left: Illustration of a submarine zooming out of a white seashell against a pale green background. Right: In the microscopic scale, tentacles grab a glowy green orb.

Wyss Institute Selects is the 18th installment in the exhibition series that invites designers, artists, architects and public figures to examine and interpret the museum’s collection. The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University uses nature’s design principles to develop bioinspired technologies and commercial products that will bring about positive impact worldwide. Wyss will present their vision of Biofuturism, which in this exhibition will be inspired by nature and Futurism in design and art.

Learn more about Wyss Institute Selects.

Immersion Room

To ensure the health and safety of visitors and staff, interactive technologies—including the Pen and touch screens—are temporarily unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Learn more about the Immersion Room.

Willi Smith: Street Couture

Portrait of Willi Smith, a young African american man wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, and his trademark circle glasses in a studio environment

Willi Smith, ca. 1981, Courtesy of Kim Steele

In the first museum exhibition dedicated to American designer Willi Smith (1948–1987), co-founder of the iconic brand WilliWear, over 200 works by Smith and collaborators will illuminate how the streetwear pioneer broke down social, cultural, and economic boundaries.

Learn more about Willi Smith: Street Couture.

student projects on Nature

Now on view on the Ground Floor, an exhibition of winners, finalists, honorable mentions from Cooper Hewitt’s fourth annual National High School Design Competition, which challenged students to design (or redesign) a nature-based solution to a global problem.

Exhibition supporters

Willi Smith: Street Couture is made possible by principal support from Target.

Major support is provided by Gucci.

Additional support is provided by the Ehrenkranz Fund and Edward and Helen Hintz.

Funding is also provided by The Coby Foundation, Ltd., the Esme Usdan Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Keith Haring Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program Fund.

In-kind support is provided by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Cargo, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Nature by Design is made possible by major support from Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee. Additional support is provided by the Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program Fund.

Wyss Institute Selects is made possible by the Marks Family Foundation Endowment Fund.

Contemporary Muslim Fashions is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

The Cooper Hewitt presentation of Contemporary Muslim Fashions is made possible by support from the August Heckscher Exhibition Fund.

Additional support is provided by the Barbara and Morton Mandel Design Gallery Endowment Fund and Edward and Helen Hintz.

Funding is also provided by the Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program Fund.

Process Lab is made possible by major support from Alice Gottesman.

Digital Experience supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Exhibitions of the permanent collection are made possible by major support from Nancy Marks. Additional support is provided by Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie and the Henry Luce Foundation.

The Immersion Room is made possible by major support from Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee.

The National High School Design Competition: Nature of Design is made possible by the generous support of Target.

Featured Image: A visitor interacts with Zachary Lieberman's Expression Mirror in Cooper Hewitt's "Face Values: Exploring Artificial Intelligence."