Unveiling Design Across Time: Cooper Hewitt Reimagines the Smithsonian’s National Design Collection

NEW YORK — In an ambitious reconceptualization of how cultural institutions engage with historical archives, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum has officially unveiled its newly minted permanent collection galleries. Titled Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection, this landmark multi-year presentation reimagines the museum’s first-floor spaces within the historic Carnegie Mansion.

Bringing together 125 carefully curated works from a staggering repository of more than 215,000 objects, the exhibition breaks away from traditional linear chronologies. Instead, it offers visitors a dynamic, thematic exploration of human ingenuity, spanning six continents and thirty centuries of design history. Featuring newly restored pieces pulled from deep storage, recent acquisitions making their public debut, and canonical touchstones of global and American design, Design Across Time serves as both an intellectual laboratory and a celebration of public cultural heritage.

Main Facts: A Global Tapestry of Human Ingenuity

At its core, Design Across Time is rooted in a foundational philosophy: that design is omnipresent, that it serves an essential civic purpose, and that from small, everyday objects to massive infrastructural systems, humanity shares a collective fluency in the built environment.

The scope of the exhibition is as expansive as the museum’s national collection, which has been growing since Cooper Hewitt’s founding in 1897. The items on display encompass product design, architecture, graphic arts, fashion, textiles, wallcoverings, and cutting-edge digital and interaction design. Visitors navigating the Carnegie Mansion’s first-floor galleries will encounter a diverse array of mediums that trace the evolution of human creativity from antiquity to the digital age.

Key highlights of the 125-piece installation include:

• Ancient & Historical Masterpieces: An exquisite Egyptian lotus-shaped cup crafted from colored faience dating back to circa 1100 BCE, standing alongside an intricate, c. 1800 Japanese Noh theater costume made of silk metallic brocade.
• Avant-Garde Craftsmanship: Tone Vigeland’s striking 1983 necklace forged from hammered steel, gold, silver, and mother-of-pearl, and a monumental porcelain vessel, A Very Large Nazuna, sculpted by Hitomi Hosono in 2016.
• Modern & Contemporary Innovations: Greta von Nessen’s iconic 1951 "Anywhere" lamp, the futuristic JVC Videosphere portable television from 1970, Sheila Bridges’ politically and culturally resonant Harlem Toile de Jouy wallpaper (2006), and David Jonathan Ross’s expressive digital typeface Bungee (2011–2016).

Chronology: Thirty Centuries in the Making

The timeline represented within Design Across Time is breathtakingly vast, deliberately dissolving the boundaries between ancient craftsmanship and contemporary digital design.

• c. 1100 BCE: The journey begins with anonymous makers of ancient Egypt, whose lotus-shaped ceramic vessels demonstrate that aesthetic refinement and functional design have been human priorities for over three millennia.
• Late 18th Century to 19th Century: The exhibition charts the evolution of decorative arts and industrial production through works like Giuseppe Barberi’s intricate ink-and-wash chalice designs and the opulent Royal Jewel Cabinet manufactured by Sèvres Porcelain between 1825 and 1826.
• Mid-to-Late 20th Century: The post-war industrial boom and ideological shifts of the 20th century are represented through bold graphic works, such as Art Sims’ 1992 Malcolm X film poster, and household products that redefined domestic spaces.
• 21st Century: The exhibition brings visitors squarely into the modern era with recent technological and material explorations, culminating in works like Toots Zynsky’s 2023 fused-glass vessel Aurifero II.

To bring this vast timeline to life, the exhibition is structured around six thematic clusters. Rather than forcing visitors down a rigid chronological path, these clusters highlight the common methodologies, conceptual approaches, and problem-solving strategies utilized by designers across different eras and geographies.

Supporting Data & Exhibition Architecture

The realization of Design Across Time required a sophisticated synthesis of architectural design, graphic branding, and curatorial vision.

The spatial layout was designed by JA Projects, working in tandem with graphic design firm Pacific. Rejecting conventional white-cube gallery layouts, the installation utilizes a central gallery anchor from which two dramatic axis vitrines cut across the sequence of first-floor rooms. The exhibition space employs a rich palette of tactile textures derived from both traditional and contemporary materials, heavily accented by a graphic system of timeless collection-object silhouettes.

Accessibility and Digital Integration

True to the Smithsonian’s mission of democratic access, Cooper Hewitt has implemented robust accessibility measures for the exhibition:

• Digital Interactives & Guides: Compatible in-gallery digital interactives feature full screen-reader capabilities. Visitors can also enrich their experience via the Bloomberg Connects app, accessing curator insights and behind-the-scenes commentary online or on mobile devices.
• Print & Sensory Resources: Comprehensive image descriptions are available via the exhibition’s dedicated accessibility webpage, complemented by Large Print Label booklets and sensory materials distributed throughout the galleries.

Official Responses and Curatorial Vision

The monumental exhibition is the collaborative product of Cooper Hewitt’s internal leadership and curatorial departments. It was organized by Matilda McQuaid, Acting Curatorial Director; Susan Brown, Acting Head of Textiles; Emily Orr, Acting Head of Product Design and Decorative Arts; and Julie Pastor, Curatorial Assistant, with overarching support from conservation, registrar, and exhibitions teams.

Speaking on the civic importance of the museum’s holdings, leadership emphasized that the national collection is a public resource belonging to all people. By bringing objects out of storage and placing them in direct conversation with recent acquisitions, the museum aims to provoke fresh dialogues about how design shapes our daily lives and our collective future.

Institutional Support and Major Funding

Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection was made possible through leadership support from Jon and Shigemi Iwata, alongside Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer. Additional generous funding was provided by:

• Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee
• The Lily Auchincloss Foundation
• The Terra Foundation for American Art
• The Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation
• Irene Au and Bradley Horowitz
• Chris and Irma Fralic

Crucially, the project received essential funding from the Smithsonian’s “Our Shared Future: 250” initiative. This institution-wide effort, sustained by private philanthropy, was created to commemorate the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary while laying the strategic groundwork for the Smithsonian’s vision for the next two and a half centuries.

Implications: Redefining the Cultural Institution

The launch of Design Across Time carries profound implications not only for Cooper Hewitt, but for the broader museum sector as it grapples with how to manage, display, and activate massive archival holdings in the 21st century.

Public Programming and Global Conversations

Coinciding with the exhibition’s run, Cooper Hewitt has rolled out an extensive public programming calendar designed to deepen public engagement with the collection. Highlights include:

• Curator-Led Tours: Regularly scheduled guided walks offering deep dives into the thematic framing of the galleries.
• "Making the Museum" Lecture Series: Launching on October 21, 2026, this international series convenes design leaders to discuss how cultural institutions are redesigning themselves for shifting social, architectural, and technological landscapes. The inaugural event features architect Elizabeth Diller and curators Brendan Cormier and Catherine Ince discussing the newly opened V&A East Storehouse in conversation with Cooper Hewitt Director Maria Nicanor.
• Hands-On Workshops: Community-focused programs such as "How We Make Bioglass" with Fan Kong, modular wall-storage workshops with Jennifer June, and family programming exploring ancient crafting techniques like Egyptian faience through modern eco-resins.

By integrating historical stewardship with active, participatory public programming, Cooper Hewitt’s Design Across Time establishes a new benchmark for museum exhibitions. It demonstrates that historical archives are not static monuments to the past, but living toolkits capable of empowering contemporary citizens to actively shape the environments of tomorrow.