Press Room

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum announced today the winners of the 2026 National Design Awards. Launched in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the National Design Awards celebrate excellence and leadership in design, recognizing the innovation and impact of individual designers and organizations across 10 categories. Award recipients are selected by a multidisciplinary jury of practitioners, educators and leaders from a wide range of design fields and will be honored at the Smithsonian National Design Awards Gala May 19 in New York City.

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present the immersive sound installation “Devon Turnbull: HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3,” from Dec. 12 through July 19, 2026, featuring a large-scale, handmade audio system by multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull. The opening of the listening room marks the museum’s kick off to a series of music, sound and design-oriented programming over the next months and is part of the “Art of Noise” exhibition, opening in full Feb. 13, 2026, and organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

This winter, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present “Art of Noise,” an exhibition celebrating the groundbreaking designs that have shaped how people experience music over the past century. Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and adapted to the history of the New York music scene for its East Coast presentation, the exhibition will be on view at Cooper Hewitt Feb. 13, 2026 through Aug. 16, 2026.

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the appointment of Steve Miller to its board of trustees.

This fall, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present “Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne,” an exhibition featuring Payne’s intricately detailed photography of America’s factories. On view from Dec. 12 through Sept. 27, 2026, the exhibition brings together more than 70 large-format photographs captured by Payne over a decade-long photographic journey to learn more about the craft of both industrial and artisanal making in the United States.

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum has acquired a major collection of work by the designer Tobias Wong (1974–2010). Often referred to as the “enfant terrible” of the design world, Wong’s influential body of work merged conceptual art, performance and product design. Through a gift of more than 50 objects from Wong’s family, friends and collaborators—including products, prototypes, digital designs and ephemera—the collection provides a new perspective on a critical voice in late 20th- and early 21st-century design. Cooper Hewitt is planning a monographic exhibition dedicated to Wong for late 2027, organized by Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, curator of contemporary design.