Design Watch Members enjoyed a special evening with Cooper-Hewitt trustee Richard Meier at the opening of Art in Architecture: Selected Works by Richard Meier in Brooklyn. This exhibition is hosted in Richard Meier’s own architectural project, Richard Meier on Prospect Park. Meier’s collages and sculptures complement his architecture in various, unexpected ways. In contrast to...
2009. Editor: Red Sky Advertising Agency. Courtesy of Safaricom. Urban workers traditionally sent money home to their villages by post or courier or delivered it themselves. M-PESA (M stands for mobile, and pesa means “money” in Swahili) allows users—over thirteen million users in three and a half years—to send and receive money securely with a...
2011. Created by Jaaga Media Center; produced by Babajob Services; directed by Clemence Barret and Archana Prasad; animated by Hannes Wagner. Courtesy of Babajob Services. Informal workers often find jobs through people they know, just as employers look to their social networks to find informal workers. Babajob.com, a social networking service, connects impoverished job seekers...
Cities don’t make people poor; they attract poor people. The flow of less advantaged people into cities from Rio to Rotterdam demonstrates urban strength, not weakness.” Edward Glaeser, Triumph of the City The first exhibition in this series, Design for the Other 90%, sparked an international dialogue about how design could improve the lives of...
A piece called Euphoria of Lights: The Comte’s Pyramid Ring, which can be virtually "tried on" with augmented reality. The Man Who Knows Everything is the name of a new jewelry collection from London designer Hannah Martin. The collection is inspired by the Count of St. Germain, an eighteenth-century German alchemist who chased immortality. To...
Shortly after the Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay exhibition opened, I received a call from the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence. The exhibition features a show-stopping coat designed by Delaunay for the actress Gloria Swanson. The Ferragamo Museum suggested that they had the design for a matching shoe. Ferragamo moved to Hollywood...
Textiles serve as the most engaging and tactile vehicle for color and life. They wrap, protect, and define us, and tell stories of the maker, user, and culture in which they were woven. This lively conversation with fashion curator, Dilys Blum; artist, Sheila Hicks; and designer, Luca Missoni will cover topics related to current exhibitions...
Jewelry can help create a public persona, and in turn the wearer can help promote style. Something treasured, jewelry is rich with private symbolism for its recipients, givers, and owners. The jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels has been worn by Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, and many others in the public eye. Come...
Dr. Sherry Buckberrough, Delaunay scholar and author of Sonia Delaunay: A Retrospective, will discuss Sonia Delaunay as a modern fashion and textile designer and a radical force in shaping the image of the Parisian “New Woman” of the 1920s. Buckberrough will illuminate how her designs emphatically deployed the look of modernity across two hemispheres.”
Necklace, Paris, France, ca 1938, emeralds, diamonds, platinum, Courtesy of a Private Collection. This necklace can be worn either way up. As curator of Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels, I am often asked about what specific characteristics of this firm’s jewelry led to its being the subject of this exhibition...
Dr. Sherry Buckberrough, associate professor at the University of Hartford and author of Sonia Delaunay: A Retrospective, will discuss Sonia Delaunay’s role in 1920s Paris and the remarkable effect her designs had on shaping the modern woman. Placing her work in the context of Paris fashion of the time, Dr. Buckberrough will illuminate Delaunay’s impact...
Some of the most significant architects of our era have cited designer and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s influence on their work. Learn how architects Peter Eisenman, Founder and Principal, Eisenman Architects; Michael Graves, Founder and Principal, Michael Graves & Associates; and Robert Venturi, Principal of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates are inspired by Piranesi’s eclectic...
Fernando and Humberto Campana take a low-tech, artisanal approach to design, employing sustainable, readily available, and often recycled materials to craft high design. Together, the two brothers have designed idiosyncratic, evocative, and sometimes humorous works for Edra and H. Stern, among others. Held in conjunction with the opening of Campana Brothers Select: Works from the...
As documents of domestic life, the watercolors featured in House Proud celebrate nineteenth-century interiors and the designers that conceived of them. Cooper-Hewitt invites contemporary designers Hermes Mallea, Carey Maloney, Mitchell Owen, and Thomas Jayne to join exhibition curator Gail Davidson for a roundtable discussion on residential interior design, historic restorations, design promotion, and the role...
In past centuries sample books served to record patterns and motifs used in decorative arts and were carefully guarded by manufacturers against espionage attempts from competitors. In this panel, held in conjunction with Multiple Choice: From Sample to Product. Cooper-Hewitt invites you to join intellectual property lawyer Harley Lewin, and Susan Posen, CEO of Zac...
