Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum - Past Events
Below is a list of all past events for Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Current and upcoming events, as well as other details, are available on the venue's page.
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“The Modernist French Garden: Designs By The Vera Brothers”
In the early 20th century, French brothers André and Paul Vera sought to develop a new style of gardens, one that paired a modern geometric order with elements of prized 17th-century landscape traditions....More »
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Suzie Zuzek “For Lilly Pulitzer: The Prints That Made The Fashion Brand”
When socialite-turned-designer Lilly Pulitzer’s simple shift dresses hit the fashion scene in the early 1960s, their eye-catching, whimsical prints made them instantly recognizable. Yet few people know...More »
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Willi Smith Exhibition
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will present the first museum exhibition of American designer Willi Smith (1948–1987). “Willi Smith: Street Couture” will feature key works by this pioneer of streetwear...More »
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“Contemporary Muslim Fashions” Exhibition
“Contemporary Muslim Fashions,” the first major museum exhibition to explore the rise of the modest fashion industry, will be on view in winter 2020 at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Organized...More »
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“Wyss Institute Selects” Exhibition
The next exhibition in Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s “Selects” series will be guest curated by members of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Organized...More »
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“Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” Exhibition
Designers are striving to transform people’s relationship with the natural world. “Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial,” co-organized by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Cube design museum...More »
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“Nature By Design: Selections From The Permanent Collection” Exhibition
To accompany the special exhibition Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, Nature by Design presents nine distinct stories drawn from Cooper Hewitt’s collection of over 210,000 design objects. Throughout...More »
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“Rebeca Méndez Selects” Exhibition
Designer, artist, and educator Rebeca Méndez is the 17th guest curator of the Selects series, for which designers, artists, writers, and cultural figures are invited to mine and interpret the permanent...More »
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“Saturated: The Allure And Science Of Color” Exhibition
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum presents “Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color,” an exhibition that explores the elusive, complex phenomenon of color perception and how it has captivated...More »
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“The Senses: Design Beyond Vision” Exhibition
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum presents “The Senses: Design Beyond Vision” exhibition, which examines how multisensory design amplifies everyone’s ability to receive information, explore the...More »
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“Selects” Exhibition
As guest curator of the next exhibition in Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s acclaimed “Selects” series, Bob Greenberg, founder of the international design innovation company R/GA, engages his...More »
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“Jewelry of Ideas: Gifts from the Susan Grant Lewin Collection” Exhibition
Fall exhibition brings 150 avant-garde works to the public, showcasing the limitless potential of jewelry design. “Jewelry of Ideas: Gifts from the Susan Grant Lewin Collection,” celebrates the recent...More »
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“Selects” Exhibition
As guest curator of the next exhibition in Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s “Selects” series, musician and four-time Grammy Award–winner Esperanza Spalding has lent her creative vision to shed...More »
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“Making | Breaking: New Arrivals” Exhibition
Pushing the boundaries of materials, making and form, 43 new objects recently acquired by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will be on view in “Making | Breaking: New Arrivals”. Presented in the...More »
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“Jeweled Splendors of the Art Deco Era: The Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan Collection” Exhibition
“Jeweled Splendors of the Art Deco Era: The Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan Collection” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum will feature more than 100 extraordinary examples of luxury cigarette...More »
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“By the People: Designing a Better America” Exhibition
The third exhibition of Cooper Hewitt’s series devoted to humanitarian design will examine how design is challenging social and economic inequality across America. Curator of Socially Responsible Design...More »
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“Scraps: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse” Exhibition
An artisan’s hands hold a pencil and draw a series of short lines on woven fabric to mark where appliqué designs will be applied. Offering creative, alternative approaches to confronting textile waste,...More »
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“Thom Browne Selects” Exhibition
Cooper Hewitt Presents Guest-Curated “Thom Browne Selects.” For the next installment of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s popular “Selects” series, fashion designer Thom Browne explores ideas...More »
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“Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial”
Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial is the fifth installment of the museum’s signature contemporary design exhibition series. With a focus on aesthetic innovation, Beauty celebrates design as a creative...More »
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“Pixar: The Design of Story” Exhibition
Presented in the museum’s Process Lab, “Pixar: The Design of Story” will examine the design process behind Pixar Animation Studios and films such as Toy Story, Wall-E, Up, Brave, The Incredibles, and Cars,...More »
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“Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio” Exhibition
Provocations is the first museum exhibition to introduce the imaginative work of British designer Thomas Heatherwick and his London-based studio to an American audience. Heatherwick is known for his unique...More »
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“David Adjaye Selects” Exhibition
Architect David Adjaye mines the museum’s permanent collection for the 12th exhibition in the ongoing Selects series. On view in the Marks Gallery, the exhibition features 14 West and Central African textiles...More »
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“How Posters Work” Exhibition
Featuring more than 125 works from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition “How Posters Work” shows how dozens of different designers—from prominent pioneers like...More »
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“Tools: Extending Our Reach” Exhibition
This full-floor exhibition includes objects from Cooper Hewitt and nine other Smithsonian collections, spanning 1.85 million years of tool use and design, to explore how tools extend the human body—augmenting...More »
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“Beautiful Users” Exhibition
Beautiful Users, installed in Cooper Hewitt’s gracious first-floor Design Process Galleries, will introduce visitors to one of the fundamental changes in design thinking over the past half-century: the...More »
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“Maira Kalman Selects” Exhibition
Maira Kalman Selects fills the former first-floor Drawing Room of the Carnegie Mansion with 40 objects from the collections of Cooper Hewitt, other Smithsonian institutions and Kalman herself, arranged...More »
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"Graphic Design—Now in Production" Exhibition
“Graphic Design” explores the worlds of design-driven magazines, newspapers, books and posters; the expansion of branding programs for corporations, institutions and subcultures; the entrepreneurial spirit...More »
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Sonia Delaunay "Color Moves: Art and Fashion"
The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum presents the exhibition “Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay." Organized by Susan Brown, assistant curator, and Matilda McQuaid, deputy...More »
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“Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels” Exhibition
“Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels” examines the renowned jewelry firm’s significant historical contributions to jewelry design and design innovation, particularly during the 20th century....More »
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"Recent Acquisitions: Digital Typography" Exhibition
This installation of five recently acquired graphic works will explore post-modernist trends in typography. On view will be examples of lively and expressive type fonts developed by designers as a counterpoint...More »
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"National Design Triennial: Why Design Now?" Exhibition
Inaugurated in 2000, the Triennial program seeks out and presents the most innovative designs at the center of contemporary culture. In this fourth exhibition in the series, the National Design Triennial...More »
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"Ted Muehling Selects: Lobmeyr Glass from the Permanent Collection" Exhibition
New York-based designer Ted Muehling will serve as the tenth guest curator of the 'Selects' exhibition series in the Nancy and Edwin Marks Gallery, devoted to showing the museum's permanent collection....More »
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"Tata Nano-The People's Car" Exhibition
Unveiled last year in India by Tata Motors, India's largest automobile manufacturer, the Tata Nano is targeted to families who had not previously been able to afford a car. Billed as "the people's car,"...More »
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"Quicktake: Rodarte" Exhibition
Founded in 2005 by Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Rodarte is widely acclaimed for its daring and conceptual fashion collections. The installation offers a glimpse into the Mulleavys' unique process and inspiration...More »
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"Design USA: Contemporary Innovation" Exhibition
Design USA celebrates the accomplishments of the winners honored during the first ten years of the prestigious National Design Awards. The exhibition features outstanding contemporary achievements in American...More »
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"Design for a Living World" Exhibition
Ten leading designers have been commissioned to develop new uses for sustainably grown and harvested materials in order to tell a unique story about the life-cycle of materials and the power of conservation...More »
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"Shahzia Sikander Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection" Exhibition
Internationally acclaimed artist Shahzia Sikander will serve as the ninth guest curator of the “Selects” exhibition series in the Nancy and Edwin Marks Gallery, devoted to showing the museum’s permanent...More »
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"Fashioning Felt" Exhibition
This exhibition will explore the varied new uses of felt—an ancient material, believed to be one of the earliest techniques for making textiles. Made by matting together wool fibers with humidity and friction,...More »
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"Wall Stories: Children's Wallpapers and Books" Exhibition
This exhibition will explore the relationship between wallpapers and books created for children through works from the permanent collection and the National Design Library. From their beginning in the...More »
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"Solos: Tulou/Affordable Housing for China" Exhibition
In the fifth installment of the Solos series, the museum will present Tulou, a prototype for affordable housing being built in the city of Guangzhou by the Chinese architectural practice Urbanus. The Tulou...More »
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"Curators Select: Recent Acquisitions, 2003–2008" Exhibition
International in scope and possessing one of the most diverse and comprehensive collections of design works in existence, the Museum's rich holdings range from the Han Dynasty (200 B.C.) to the present...More »
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"House Proud: Nineteenth-century Watercolor Interiors from the Thaw Collection" Exhibition
This exhibition showcases Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw’s collection of nineteenth-century watercolor drawings, which meticulously detail the era’s interior furnishings and document the social, cultural,...More »
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"Cocktails@Cooper-Hewitt" Art Party
This summer, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will be holding a series of outdoor garden events. Cocktails@Cooper-Hewitt will be held on Friday evenings from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., from July 11th through...More »
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GlassLab Presentation
In a special two-week presentation, Cooper-Hewitt will host GlassLab, an innovative program of The Corning Museum of Glass that pairs its master glassmakers with some of the most creative minds working...More »
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"Rococo: The Continuing Curve 1730–2008" Exhibition
Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum presents Rococo: The Continuing Curve, 1730–2008, a groundbreaking exhibition that fully explores rococo style and its continuing revivals up to the...More »
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"Campana Brothers Select: Works from the Permanent Collection" Exhibition
The Brazilian design team of Fernando and Humberto Campana mined the Museum’s collection departments and chose a diverse group of more than thirty objects, dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries....More »
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"Multiple Choice: From Sample to Product" Exhibition
This exhibition will examine sample books and other sampling formats as tools for marketing or recording designs and techniques in a wide variety of media. In use since the eighteenth century, sampling...More »