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Cooper-Hewitt's New Acting Director

A message from Caroline Baumann:

As you may know, Paul Warwick Thompson, the Museum’s director of eight years, has resigned to accept the position of rector of the Royal College of Art in London. Starting July 13th, I will serve as acting director of the museum while a ten-member committee, of which I am a part, searches for a permanent director.

I would like to thank Paul for his dedication to Cooper-Hewitt. It was his vision and leadership that resulted in the current RE:DESIGN project, the most ambitious in the Museum’s history, which will culminate in a dramatic reconfiguration of Cooper-Hewitt and a major increase in its endowment. Phase one of the RE:DESIGN has begun with the renovation of the Miller/Fox townhouses. The Museum and Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden remain open—pardon the trailers—with a great roster of programs and exhibitions, including Cocktails@Cooper-Hewitt, starting July 10th, along with Fashioning Felt and Design for a Living World.

During my tenure at Cooper-Hewitt, I have served as director of development, director of external affairs, and deputy director, and had the good fortune of meeting many of you at various programs throughout the years. I hope to see you at the Museum soon, and look forward to sharing news and updates with you over the summer. In the meantime, feel free to contact me with any comments or suggestions about Cooper-Hewitt.

Caroline Baumann
Acting Director

Social Changemakers


Join in a Twitter-based Social Entrepreneurship Chat organized by Ashoka. The real time discussions on social entrepreneurship issues take place the 1st Wed of the month, 4-6PM US Eastern Time. The next conversation on Wed, July 1, focuses on mobile innovation.

Ashoka is now partnering with the Lemelson Foundation on a new initiative to support social innovators. The initiative AshokaTech now has over 70 fellows, individuals who are effectively aligning social entrepreneurship with technology.

On the Nicaraguan coast AshokaTech Fellow Mathias Craig is working with a local rural community to develop a hybrid wind/solar energy system. The aim is to create new industries resulting in local jobs and increased economic activity for a depressed area while providing basic energy needs.

Godisa’s SolarAid solar hearing aid battery recharger is expanding to other countries beyond Botswana. Transferring what he learned from this successful product AshokaTech Fellow Howard Weinstein is working with other underserved and disabled communities around the world.

In India Village Information Kiosks provide wireless internet access in remote areas. Fellow Amol Goje has developed low cost computer, video-conferencing facilities to help farmers to increase productivity, stimulate growth and educate the next generation. Using interactive communication technologies Amol looks to increase economic capacity beyond the cities; increasingly important as our urban centers grow at unprecedented rates.

Celebrate Design in D.C.


Friday, July 24th promises to be an exciting day for design fans in Washington, DC and across the country. First Lady Michelle Obama will join us in celebrating the National Design Awards with five simultaneous Public Programs followed by a White House Ceremony for the honorees. This is the 10th annual National Design Awards and we are very excited to bring several of this year’s honorees to Washington, DC to speak at free events taking place at five different museums around The Mall. The program will feature an incredible group of designers and design thinkers in conversation about the current state of design.

You can find a complete list of speakers and more information on our website. If you can’t make it to any of these events, please check back on our website for videos of these programs and more about National Design Week!

National Design Awards + Summer in NYC

If you happen to be in New York this summer (one day it will stop raining, I promise), be sure to check out these design destinations, all featuring previous National Design Award winners.

Recently opened at the Museum of F.I.T., the very beautifully installed retrospective of Toledo Studio’s designs includes The Dress (i.e., the lemongrass shift dress and jacket designed for Michelle Obama on Inauguration Day) and many other (often more compelling) explorations of the relationship between geometry and the body. Introduced with a fascinating timeline of the history of the studio and the symbiotic collaboration between Ruben and Isabel Toledo, the exhibition also includes the most iconic garments of Toledo’s career. Not least, the exhibition is worth a visit because of the relationship between the beautiful garments and the mannequins (designed by Ruben Toledo), reinforced through the datum of watercolors and sketches that contextualize the rich trajectory of garments on display. For those who can afford it, these will apparently all be available in the fall for purchase in lieu of the studio’s usual resort line.

Heading slightly downtown and west, arrive at the elevated park otherwise known as the High Line. While we might be best advised to avoid the subplots of pie-eyed developers trying to capitalize upon the still-moneyed classes of the far west side, there was a more than healthy crowd waiting to climb aboard on a suddenly sunny June weekend afternoon this past Sunday, and everyone in the park would seemingly agree that it was worth the wait. As the intern for the exhibition that features this project pointed out, even the water fountains were integrated as a design idea. Go now before the charge to keep it simple, wild, slow, and quiet become quaint aspirations.

Moving further east and slightly south, the about-to-be-completed new building for Cooper Union features the aggressively robust architecture of Morphosis and the deliberately distorted signage of Pentagram. Previewed in the New York Times last week as a “tough and sexy statement,” the building embraces its context while, somehow, seeming decidedly of its time. A bold move for a consistently radical institution that has been able to test boundaries and foster dialogue at the edge of disciplines in a 19th century building before now. There will likely be no doubt about when this new iteration was built (or commissioned), but the role of the public spaces within and the “vertical campus” promised by its atrium both propose a building that will radicalize the relationship between student and public while capturing the spirit of dialogue and collaboration that is endemic to the institution.

WANTED: Apple products for the National Design Museum's Collection

As the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum, Cooper-Hewitt seeks to acquire the best examples of industrial design, and much of the permanent collection has been built through the generosity of donors. The Museum would like to invite the public to help expand its holdings of products by Apple, one of the country’s most important and influential design firms.

We are looking for donations of the Apple products listed below. The products must be in excellent condition, with original parts and power cords or batteries. All donors will be listed on the credit line whenever the works are displayed or published. If you have one of the products below and would like to donate it, please contact Cynthia Trope, Associate Curator of Product Design and Decorative Arts, at tropeci@si.edu to discuss arrangements. Many thanks for your help!

Apple wish list:
Newton Message Pad (1993)
iBook (2001, white)
iPod, 1st generation (2001)
iMac G5 (2004)
Macbook Pro (2006)
iPhone, 1st generation (2007)
Macbook Air (2008)