Current Exhibitions

Three people sit and watch a wall split open down the middle. The wall is projected to look like the bookshelves in the room around it, with two larger-than-life hands pushing the wall open.

An Atlas of Es Devlin

On View Through August 11, 2024
British artist and stage designer Es Devlin (born 1971) is renowned for large-scale installations and sculptures that transform audiences across theater, music, architecture, and activism. This first monographic exhibition showcases the never-before-seen, small-scale works that lead to her monumental architectures. Learn more →

Give Me a Sign: The Language of Symbols

Grid of various symbols appearing largely in black and white, with a few symbols marked in red.
On View Through September 2, 2024
Give Me a Sign demonstrates how symbol design is a dynamic and collaborative effort through which individuals and communities have created, adopted, and redesigned symbols over time. Visitors are invited to discover the history behind many symbols and participate in creative activities in-gallery and online to co-create a Symbol Sourcebook of 2024. Learn more →

Acquired! Shaping the National Design Collection

A grid of objects in Cooper Hewitt's collection, showing the breadth and depth of the museum's holdings. Objects include a chair, map, poster, stool and green lamp.
On View Through September 2, 2024
What does it mean to be a design museum today? This exhibition highlights how Cooper Hewitt acquires new work to shape the collection to better reflect current issues and design’s evolving role in daily interactions. Presented on the second-floor galleries, the exhibition features objects that represent the museum’s collecting legacy, as well as works brought into the collection since 2017. Learn more →

Exhibition Supporters

An Atlas of Es Devlin is made possible with major support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Generous support is provided by Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee, Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer, Kimberly Schuessler, and Morgan M. Schuessler, Jr.

Support is also provided by the Arthur F. & Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, the August Heckscher Exhibition Fund, the Barbara and Morton Mandel Design Gallery Endowment Fund, Disguise Technologies, the Esme Usdan Exhibition Endowment Fund, the Lemberg Foundation, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation.

Bloomberg Philanthropies

Give Me a Sign: The Language of Symbols is made possible with generous support from the Marks Family Foundation Endowment Fund.

Generous support for Acquired! Shaping the National Design Collection is provided by Cooper Hewitt’s Collections Committee and by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation.