Cooper Hewitt Announces Spring and Summer Public Programs

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum announces a wide range of program offerings this spring and summer, including the third installment of the Design by Hand series with world-renowned fashion designer Ralph Rucci, lectures on graphic design in conjunction with the exhibition “How Posters Work,” talks with pioneering designers such as Bruce Mau and engaging family activities, such as the museum’s first-ever Design Camp.

“We are greatly honored to welcome National Design Award winner Ralph Rucci to kick off an inspiring calendar of programs for all ages at Cooper Hewitt,” said Caroline Baumann, director of the museum. “From the Morse Lecture with Bruce Mau on the future of design to our first ever Design Camp for kids, our programs educate, inspire and provide a meaningful way for the public to interact with some of the biggest names in design.”

The Design by Hand series focuses on the craftsmanship, innovations and merits of pioneering design organizations. The weeklong program will spotlight Rucci and feature a keynote lecture by him May 6. Additional programs with Rucci include free hands-on workshops for teens and college students on all facets of the design process, including presenting ideas to a client, while an adult workshop will focus on creative inspiration.

The “How Posters Work” exhibition demonstrates how some of the world’s most creative designers have employed design principles to produce powerful acts of visual communication. Spring and summer programs surrounding the exhibition begin with a graphic design open studio and lecture with curator Ellen Lupton and Dutch designers Rianne Petter and René Put May 9 and also include a talk on Polish graphic design and an evening with renowned poster artist Dan Stiles.  

A rich variety of activities for kids at the museum include the inaugural season of Design Camp, with weeklong sessions of design and gallery explorations. Each week, guest designers will provide campers with real-world design challenges and share innovative solutions to get their creative juices going. Campers will uncover the best of design and dive deep into creative problem solving with the museum’s world-renowned collection and exhibitions at their fingertips. The Design Tales program aims to teach kids that design is all around them by making them active participants in the design process. Toddlers participate in interactive reading sessions that focus on design-based books that reinforce basic elements of design such as shape, line, color and texture, as well as ideas such as material, functionality and form.

Design by Hand is made possible by the support of Van Cleef & Arpels.

Target Design Kids is made possible by the generous support of Target. 

Additional support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

How Posters Work is made possible by major support from Adobe Foundation.

Design by Hand Programs

Create: For Families
Saturday, May 2; 11 a.m.­–2:30 p.m. and 1:30­– 3 p.m. 
Cooper Hewitt Design Center (111 Central Park North, New York)
Children will create a 2-D piece inspired by Rucci’s designs and his architectural sculpting, intricate detailing and workmanship. For children ages 5­–12. 

Free. Registration required.

Design by Hand Lecture with Ralph Rucci
Wednesday, May 6; 6:30­–8 p.m. 
Great Hall, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st St., New York)
Rucci will talk about his creative process, inspiration and the role of the hand in his work. 

General admission $10, Cooper Hewitt members free. Reservation required.

Designing for a Client: Teen Workshop
Thursday, May 7; 4:30 p.m.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st St., New York)
Teens will be given a fictitious client with certain attributes and will use sketching, fabric and collage to design a piece for their client.

Free. Reservation required.

Inspiration: Adult Workshop
Thursday, May 7; 6:30­–8 p.m.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st St., New York)
Adult participants will learn about Rucci’s creative process and engage in inspirational activities. 

General admission $50, Cooper Hewitt members $25. Reservation required.

Construction and Form: College Workshop
Friday, May 8; 3 p.m. 
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st St., New York)
Students will learn about the process of construction and how toiles, patterns and shapes are used to realize a collection. This workshop is open to college students with valid student ID only.

Free. Registration required.

“How Posters Work” Spring and Summer Programs

Graphic Design Talk and Workshop
Saturday, May 9; 3–6:30 p.m. (two sessions)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st St., New York)

Session 1: 3-5 p.m.
Graphic Design Open Studio

Visiting designers Rianne Petter, René Put, Katie Evans and Mary Mashburn/Globe Poster will lead hands-on design activities.

Session 2: 5-6:30 p.m.
Curator’s Talk: How Posters Work

Cooper Hewitt curator Ellen Lupton will talk about how to look at posters as visual language. What does it mean to take graphic design out of context and put it in a museum? Dutch designers Rianne Petter and René Put will talk about their own experimental dissection of design language, “Poster No. 524: Exploring the Contemporary Poster.”
General admission: $15, Cooper Hewitt members and students, $10.

For both programs, general admission, $25; Cooper Hewitt members and students, $12. Registration required.

Inside Polish Graphic Design
Sunday, May 17; 10:30 a.m.
Terminal Stores, (269 11th Ave., New York )
Moderated by Ellen Lupton, senior curator of contemporary design at Cooper Hewitt, with  Jacek Mrowczyk, Agata Szydłowska and Krzysztof Lenk. Part of WantedDesign.
More info: http://www.wanteddesignnyc.com/wd2015/manhattan/program/sunday-may-17/

Poster Nite: Dan Stiles + Ellen Lupton at The Strand
Wednesday, May 27; 7 p.m.
The Strand (third-floor Rare Book Room, 828 Broadway at 12th Street, New York)

Renowned poster artist Dan Stiles speaks with Ellen Lupton, whose new book How Posters Work focuses on design principles and visual language in posters. The purchase of Stiles’s book One Thing Leads to Another or a $15 Strand gift card is necessary in order to attend this event.
More info: http://www.strandbooks.com/event/dan-stiles

Cooper Hewitt’s “How Posters Work”: A Look Inside Design
Thursday, June 18; 12 p.m.
92Y (Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, New York)

In this primer in visual thinking, Cooper Hewitt curator Ellen Lupton discusses pieces by pioneers such as Herbert Matter, Paul Rand, Philippe Apeloig and M/M Paris, as well as rarely seen works by new and little-known artists.

Tickets: $24
More info: https://www.92y.org/Event/Cooper-Hewitt-s-How-Posters-Work

Type Nite: Ellen Lupton + Abbott Miller + Peter Mendelsund at The Strand
Thursday, July 16; 7 p.m.
The Strand (third-floor Rare Book Room, 828 Broadway at 12th Street, New York)

Famed American graphic designer and writer Abbott Miller will join Cooper Hewitt curator Ellen Lupton and author and designer Peter Mendelsund for an exciting conversation about design and typography today.
More info: http://www.strandbooks.com/event/peter-mendelsund-ellen-lupton-abbott-miller

Additional Adult Spring/Summer Public Programs

Morse Historic Design Lecture with Bruce Mau
Wednesday, May 13; 6:30 p.m.
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st St., New York)
Design has changed the way people interact with the world. From hand-held smart products to large-scale systems and networks, designers have envisioned a brave new world of connectivity and autonomy. Designer and thinker Bruce Mau talks about the future of design, using examples from Cooper Hewitt’s collection to highlight the progress and promise of contemporary design.

General admission, $30; Cooper Hewitt Members and students, $25. Registration required. 

“What’s About to Happen in Architecture and Design Book Publishing”
Thursday, May 14; 7 p.m.
Frederic P. Rose Auditorium, Cooper Union (41 Cooper Square, New York)
As part of NYCxDESIGN, Pamela Horn, director of cross-platform publishing at Cooper Hewitt, speaks about the state and future of architecture and design book publishing with Will Balliett, president and publisher of Thames & Hudson; John Donatich, director of Yale University Press; and Kyle May, editor in chief of CLOG.

Free and open to the public with RSVP.

Wanted by Design—Conversation Series
Sunday, May 17; 12­–1 p.m.
Terminal Stores, (269 11th Ave., New York )
Caroline Baumann, director of Cooper Hewitt,  joins a discussion with Olivier Gabet (Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris) and Glenn Adamson (Museum of Arts and Design, New York) on the role and the position of museums in growing the international design voice and supporting the industry. Moderated by Susan Szenasy, editor-in-chief, Metropolis. Part of WantedDesign. More info: http://www.wanteddesignnyc.com/wd2015/manhattan/program/sunday-may-17/

For Kids, Teens and Families

Design Camp
July 20­–Aug. 14 (one week sessions)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st St., New York)

Design Camp at Cooper Hewitt offers weeklong explorations of design through fun challenges and gallery explorations. Each week, guest designers will provide campers with real-world design challenges and share innovative solutions to get their creative juices going. Campers will uncover the best of design and dive deep into creative problem solving with the museum’s world-renowned collection and exhibitions at their fingertips.

Registration fees: $500 per child, per week; $450 for museum members per child, per week. View all sessions and register.

Target Design Kids Toddler Program: Design Tales
Mondays and Wednesday, 10 a.m.­–12:30 p.m., Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st St., New York)
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.­–12:30 p.m., Cooper Hewitt Design Center (111 Central Park North, New York)

Design Tales is a free literacy-based design program for pre-school children ages 2–5 and their caregivers that incorporate storytelling, design vocabulary and hands-on activities. The sessions engage the youngest designers in visualization, creative play and inspire hands-on activities lead by a museum educator. 

Target Design Tales with Jonathan Kruk will be held at the museum once a month. 

Imagination Playground will be held at the museum once a month. 

Free. Registration required.

About Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Founded in 1897, Cooper Hewitt is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. On Dec. 12, 2014, Cooper Hewitt opened in the renovated and restored Carnegie Mansion, which offers 60 percent more exhibition space to showcase one of the most diverse and comprehensive collections of design works in existence. Currently on view are 10 inaugural exhibitions and installations featuring more than 700 objects throughout four floors of the mansion, many of which draw from the museum’s permanent collection of more than 210,000 objects that span 30 centuries. For the first time in the museum’s history, the entire second floor is dedicated to showcasing the permanent collection through a variety of exhibitions. Visitors can experience a full range of new interactive capabilities, including the opportunity to explore the collection digitally on ultra-high-definition touch-screen tables, draw their own designs in the Immersion Room and solve real-world design problems in the Process Lab.

Cooper Hewitt is located at 2 East 91st St. at Fifth Avenue in New York City. Hours are Sunday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The new Tarallucci e Vino café opens daily at 8 a.m. The Arthur Ross Terrace & Garden, currently under renovation, will open summer 2015 and be accessible without an admissions ticket through the new East 90th Street entrance. The museum is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Public transit routes include the Lexington Avenue 4, 5 and 6 subways (86th or 96th Street stations) and the Fifth and Madison Avenue buses. Adult admission, $18; seniors, $12; students, $9. Cooper Hewitt members and children younger than age 18 are admitted free. Pay What You Wish every Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m. The museum is fully accessible.

For further information, call (212) 849-8400, visit Cooper Hewitt’s website at www.cooperhewitt.org and follow the museum onwww.twitter.com/cooperhewitt, www.facebook.com/cooperhewitt and www.instagram.com/cooperhewitt.

About Van Cleef & Arpels

Van Cleef & Arpels was established in Paris’s Place Vendôme in 1906, following Alfred Van Cleef’s marriage to Estelle Arpels in 1895. Van Cleef & Arpels has become a worldwide reference through its creative designs, its choice of exceptional stones and its virtuoso craftsmanship. In 2011, Cooper Hewitt mounted the exhibition “Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels,” which explored the historical significance of the house’s contributions to jewelry design in the 20th century.

 

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