Cooper Hewitt Opens Design Across Time Exhibition

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum opened its first extended permanent collection exhibition, "Design Across Time," on an unspecified date this year, making a significant portion of its vast holdings accessible to the public. This exhibition will be on view for at least two years, aiming to provide visitors with a comprehensive understanding of the museum's national collection and the diverse stories it holds.

"Design Across Time" features 125 objects, representing the breadth of the museum's collection, which spans over 200,000 items. These include physical objects, prototypes, digital technologies, and even a computer virus. The exhibition aims to address the common challenge faced by museums where a large percentage of their collections remain unseen by the public. Maria Nicanor, director of the Cooper Hewitt, stated that the exhibition serves as a crucial introduction for people to understand the national design collection and its narratives.

The museum's efforts to create this exhibition have spanned three years. Previously, objects from the Cooper Hewitt's collection were typically only displayed to support special exhibitions or in limited thematic presentations. The opening of "Design Across Time" marks a shift towards a more sustained public engagement with the permanent collection. This initiative aligns with a broader trend among museums to increase the accessibility of their archives, as an estimated 95% of museum collections are often hidden from public view.

Examples of objects highlighted by the museum include a Noh theater costume from Japan, dating to circa 1800, made of silk metallic brocade, and a "Style Stiletto" from 2011, a textile designed by Marjo Penninx and manufactured by Vlisco. These selections illustrate the temporal and geographical diversity within the museum's collection, which is dedicated to historical and contemporary design.