Current Exhibitions

Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection
ONGOING

Occupying the entire first floor of the museum’s Carnegie Mansion, Design Across Time expands public access to Cooper Hewitt’s collection and includes significant works newly brought out of storage. Through objects spanning time, geography, and discipline—including graphic design, product design, fashion, textiles, furniture, wallcoverings, digital design, and architecture—this exhibition highlights the breadth of the national design collection. 

Design Across Time  organizes the museum’s vast collection around thematic clusters to explore some of the many approaches designers use in their creative process. Designers Play and Tweak to experiment and iterate ideas. They Repeat elements to reinforce messages; Transform materials into sustainable solutions; Show Off craftsmanship to create objects of beauty; or Simplify complex shapes and information. 

Learn more about Design Across Time →

MADE IN AMERICA: THE INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY OF CHRISTOPHER PAYNE
ON VIEW through sept. 27, 2026

Made in America brings together more than 70 large-format photographs captured by Christopher Payne over a decade-long photographic journey to learn more about the craft of both industrial and artisanal making in the United States. His images celebrate the combination of human skill and mechanical precision that transform raw materials into objects as diverse as pencils, semiconductors, pianos, and rockets.

Learn more about Made in America →

ART OF NOISE
On view through August 16, 2026

Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art of Noise celebrates groundbreaking design that enhances and visualizes our musical experiences. From concert posters to record albums, phonographs to digital music players, handheld radios to sound systems, Art of Noise takes visitors on an exploration of how design has transformed people’s relationship to music over the past 100 years. The exhibition features more than 300 artworks drawn largely from the collections of Cooper Hewitt and SFMOMA, as well as teenage engineering’s unique choir installation and Devon Turnbull’s immersive listening room.

Learn more about Art of Noise →

Devon Turnbull: HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3
ON VIEW through July 19, 2026

Part of Art of Noise, the installation HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 features a large scale, handmade, audio system by multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull. Known under his creative pseudonym OJAS, Turnbull handcrafts high-fidelity audio systems designed to envelop the listener in sound that is as rich in texture as it is in emotion. The listening room will be activated throughout the run of the exhibition with sonic experiences curated by noted music collectors, archivists, audiophiles, and musicians from the New York area and beyond.

Learn more about HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 →

The Substitute
ON VIEW through JAN. 31, 2027

Part of Design Across Time, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s The Substitute is an immersive video and sound installation that digitally resurrects the extinct male Northern white rhino using artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art visual effects.

Learn more about The Substitute →

SUPPORT

Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne received support from Smithsonian’s Our Shared Future: 250, a Smithsonian-wide initiative commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Signature support for Smithsonian’s Our Shared Future: 250 has been provided by Lilly Endowment Inc. Additional generous contributions have been made by Target and New Balance.

Art of Noise is organized by SFMOMA and curated by Joseph Becker, Curator of Architecture and Design, SFMOMA, with Divya Saraf, former Curatorial Assistant in Architecture and Design, SFMOMA. Cooper Hewitt’s presentation is curated by Joseph Becker with support from Cynthia Trope, Associate Curator of Product Design and Decorative Arts, Cooper Hewitt.

This exhibition is made possible by the August Heckscher Exhibition Fund, the Ehrenkranz Fund, the Barbara and Morton Mandel Design Gallery Endowment Fund, the Fisher Arts Impact Fund, and Jonathan Schroeder and Janet Borgerson.

PHOTOS:
Wool carders, 2012. Photographed by Christopher Payne (American, born 1968). S & D Spinning Mill (Millbury, Massachusetts). Courtesy of the artist.

RR-126 Radio-Phonograph, 1965; Designed by Achille Castiglioni (Italian, 1918-2002) and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, (Italian, 1913-1968); Manufactured by Brionvega, S.p.A (Milan, Italy); Plywood, plastic, aluminum, polycarbonate, electronic components; H x W x D (speakers on sides): 46.5 × 121 × 36.5 cm (18 5/16 × 47 5/8 × 14 3/8 in.); H x W x D (speakers on top): 92.5 × 61.5 × 36.5 cm (36 7/16 × 24 3/16 × 14 3/8 in.); Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Gift of George R. Kravis II, 2018-22-96-a/c; Photo: Matt Flynn

Devon Turnbull, HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2025; courtesy Devon Turnbull/Lisson Gallery; photo: Mark Waldhauser

Still from The Substitute installation, 2019; Designed by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (British and South African, b. 1982); Animation by The Mill with behavior based on research by DeepMind; Paired video installation (projector and screen); 6 minutes 18 seconds; Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund, 2020-10-1.