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Pioneers of Change

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the kick-off event for Pioneers of Change, a festival of modern Dutch design, fashion and architecture that is currently underway on Governor’s Island. Presented to celebrate the 400-year history of Dutch-American friendship, Pioneers of Change features installations by a number of leading Dutch designers in eleven former Officers’ houses at Nolan Park on the Island. It’s the first time the houses have been open to the public in thirteen years.

Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog, conceived of and curated the event. Each of the designers was assigned to an Officer’s house in which to create their installation, and all shied away from typical design and architecture presentations of models, drawings and artifacts. In one house, Maarten Baas created large-scale clocks in which projections of people’s recorded actions become the clock hands, creating a performative aspect to the passing of time while illuminating it as an arbitrary concept. In another, Christien Meindertsma knitted a huge carpet from the wool of three different Dutch sheep using six-foot-long needles, demonstrating a contemporary nod to handicraft while maintaining a connection to the raw material from which the carpet is made. Dutch fashion collective Painted collaborated with Native American bead masters and Parsons fashion students to create pieces to “dress” their house, imbuing it with life and beauty. On the lawn, sit on the Boombench by Michael Schoner of NL Architects. And keep an eye out for the incredible Slow Glow Lamps by Next Architects and Aura Luz Melis in the Go Slow café in yet another house.

The installations are inspired, imaginative, playful and exploratory. They establish new collaborations, for instance inviting visitors to repair broken objects. They highlight local context, such as with ceramics made from clay from central Holland and New York. They emphasize sustainability, as one house showcases left-over building materials found around New York, and they celebrate new notions of luxury, such as time, silence, space and slowness. Pioneers of Change is definitely worth a visit – aside from Governors Island being an inspired destination in which to picnic or ride a bike in New York, seeing the latest imaginings from some of Holland’s leading designers on our shores is truly not to be missed.

Pioneers of Change runs from September 11 – 13 and September 18 – 20. Governors Island ferries depart Manhattan from 10 South Street every 20 minutes.

Andrea Lipps
Curatorial Assistant, Design Triennial

Research Chronicles

Follow my field research chronicles on twitter, starting in Kumasi, Ghana at the International Development Design Summit organized by Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and MIT. The summit aims to create equity in the distribution of research and development resources by focusing on the needs of the world’s poor, bringing together students, professors, end-users and professionals from over 20 countries with a broad range of disciplines and experience. Immediately following the summit, the first Maker Faire Africa convenes in Ghana’s capital of Accra. Organized to cultivate a manufacturing base, the Faire will bring together indigenous innovators of locally generated technologies to address immediate challenges to development.

Follow me on twitter to get updates from these events in the upcoming weeks.

Felt in Haiti

  • By: Susan Brown
  • | Friday July 31, 2009
  • | 8 Comment(s)


I had the pleasure of meeting recently with Ton Vriens, a Dutch documentary filmmaker and journalist who, through his foundation Turtle Tree, is working with women in Haiti to develop a felt-making co-operative, with the goal of achieving economic and social independence for the members of the self-governed group.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, and many women there are the sole providers for extended families. This highly motivated group, which calls itself Fanm Veret, Wi Nou Kapab! (The Women of Verrettes, Yes We Can Do It), has earned a grant from the Spanish regional government of Andalusia to assist with the legal process of becoming a co-operative, and to provide business training. Turtle Tree is assisting with product development by inviting American designers and felt makers to lead workshops in the crafts of felting and needlework. While there is no felting tradition in the region, it has the advantage of not requiring expensive specialized equipment. (Turtle Tree has started a second, more long-range project, of re-introducing the organic cotton cultivation which used to be a major part of Haiti’s economy). Fanm Veret imports 100% organic wool from Thirteen Mile Lamb & Wool Co. in Montana. Because the wool is very soft, and the hand-dyed colors are subtle, the finished products have a higher level of refinement than products coming out of Central Asia, where the wool tends to be quite coarse. The women are currently producing simple and beautiful covers for iPhone and iPod, 13” MacBook and MacBook Air.

2009 Design Patron

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, has been selected the winner of the 2009 Design Patron Award. Mr. Levy is being recognized for his design stewardship of the Lincoln Center campus renovation project. The renovations at Lincoln Center have enhanced and added to one of New York City’s great cultural treasures with new dynamic public spaces and a greater sense of accessibility and openness to the campus. Mr. Levy, along with his board, allowed incredible new design voices including Diller, Scofido + Renfro and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, both National Design Award winners, to add their mark to Lincoln Center. The design of the new Alice Tully Hall has been met with rave critical reviews, which leaves us with great anticipation for the rest of the projects set to open later this year. All of the designers working on the renovation are bringing a new freshness to the modern 1960’s campus, always a design destination and now even more so thanks to Levy’s vision and leadership. We’ll be honoring Mr. Levy, along with all of the 2009 National Design Award winners, at an October 22 gala dinner at Cipriani in New York, as well as the White House ceremony July 24 in Washington, D.C. Don’t forget to check out details on attending the free events taking place on July 24 in Washington, D.C. – hope to see you there!

Click here for more information on the July 24 events

Welcome our two new trustees



I am thrilled to announce that Stuart Bohart of Morgan Stanley and Marissa Mayer of Google and have joined Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s board of trustees. Bohart, managing director, investment management at Morgan Stanley, has been with the global financial services firm for more than 10 years. Mayer joined Google in 1999 as its first female engineer and 20th employee, and functions as the principle designer of Google’s look and feel. The museum’s board of trustees, a group of 33 individuals led by Chairman Paul Herzan and President James Rosenthal, is comprised of a distinguished roster of leaders from top American design companies, including GE, Nike, P & G and Target.

Bohart joined Morgan Stanley as a portfolio manager in the investment management business, where he co-managed a global multi-strategy equity fund, and went on to become head of International Prime Brokerage in 2003 and global head in Prime Brokerage in 2005. In 2006, he was appointed head of alternative investments and he became head of investment management in 2008. Bohart, a graduate of Northwestern University with dual degrees in economics and Asian studies, serves on the board of the Smithsonian African Art Museum and on the board of governors for the Investment Company Institute. He lives on the Upper West Side with his family.

Mayer leads Google’s product management and design efforts for search products, including web search, images, news, books, products, maps, Google Earth, and more. Her efforts have included designing and developing Google’s search interface, and launching hundreds of features and products on Google.com. The company’s design efforts, under Mayer’s leadership, were recognized with the 2008 National Design Award for Corporate Achievement, which acknowledges a corporation’s use of design as a strategic tool in its mission and exhibits ingenuity and insight in helping to advance the relationship between design and quality of life. She received her bachelor of science degree in symbolic systems and her master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University, specializing in artificial intelligence for both degrees. Mayer is a trustee of SF MoMA and the San Francisco Ballet, and currently resides in San Francisco, Calif.