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Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School

2007 Examining the Structure and Policies of the Cooper-Hewitt National with Implications for Best Practice HyunKyung Lee

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THE STATE UNIVERSITY

THE COLLEGE OF VISUAL , THEATRE AND DANCE

EXAMINING THE STRUCTURE AND POLICIES OF THE COOPER-HEWITT

NATIONAL WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR BEST PRACTICE

By

HYUNKYUNG LEE

A dissertation submitted to the Department of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2007

Copyright © 2007 Hyunkyung Lee All Right Reserved

The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Hyunkyung Lee defended on May 1, 2007.

______Tom Anderson Professor Directing Dissertation

______Paul Marty Outside Committee Member

______Pat Villeneuve Committee Member

______Dave Gussak Committee Member

Approved:

______Marcia L. Rosal, Chair, Department of Art Education

______Sally E. McRorie, Dean, The College of , Theatre and Dance

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members.

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My gratitude is extended to all who helped to make this study possible. A special thanks goes to my major professor Dr. Tom Anderson, who guided and encouraged me with full generosity. I also would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Paul Marty, Dr. Pat Villeneuve, and Dr. Dave Gussak for their insightful comments. Special thanks are due to the Department chair, Dr. Marcial Rosal for her support. My appreciation goes to Dr. Jayme Harpring, for her professional editorial help and great personality. Appreciation is also extended to all Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum staff, especially to the curatorial director for her enthusiastic support and passion in helping me. Immense gratitude is due to my family, especially to my father, who is President and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP), both of which contribute to the development of the Korean economy and improve the quality of life for all Korean citizens by sponsoring research and development in design and implementing projects that promote design in effective and systematic ways. My father was always there to encourage me whenever I got lost. In addition, my deepest appreciation is extended to my husband for his cooperation and support during the separation necessitated by our individual courses of study.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables …………………………………………….………………..….. vii List of Figures ………………………………………….……………….…...... viii Abstract .………………………………………………………………... ix

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

1. Introduction...... 1 2. Statement of Purpose...... 2 3. Research Questions...... 3 4. ...... 3 5. Rationale ...... 4 6. Scope, Assumptions, and Limitations...... 5 7. Definition of Key Terms ...... 6 8. Summary ...... 8

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE...... 9

1. Introduction…………………………………………...... 9 2. Conceptual Framework...... 9 Design and Social Theories...... 9 Design and Mass Consumerism...... 10 3. Characteristics & Qualities of Design...... 12 What is Design?...... 12 Defining Design as Distinct from Fine Arts...... 13 4. ...... 14 Introduction...... 14 The Impact of the Industrial Revolution...... 14 The Growing Influence of the Modern Movement...... 15 and the History of Design...... 16 The Influence of De Stijl ……...... 16 Constructivism ...... 17 The ...... 17 The Modernism Approach: Aesthetic Quality...... 18 The Post-Modernism Approach: Perception and Interpretation...... 18 5. Design Museums...... 19 What is a Design Museum? ...... 19 The Impact of the Museum of ...... 20 Audiences in Design Museums...... 21 : Display and Layout ...... 22

iv 6. The History of Design Museum...... 23 Design Archives...... 24 7. Examples of Design Museums...... 25 Introduction...... 25 The Design Museum in , UK...... 26 The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, UK...... 27 The Kunstgewerbemuseum in , ...... 28 Ghent Design Museum in Ghent, Belgium ……...... 29 The Wolfsonian Design Museum in Miami, Florida...... 30 Design in der Pinakothek der Moderne in , Germany...... 32 The in Weil am Rhein, Germany ...... 33 Barcelona Museu de les Arts Decoratives in Barcelona, Spain...... 34 The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in City...... 34 8. Summary ...... 37

METHODOLOGY ...... 41

1. Research Question...... 41 2. Theoretical Framework...... 41 3. The Development of Grounded Theory...... 42 4. Field Site ...... 43 5. Research Design...... 44 6. Data Collection...... 45 Interviewing ...... 46 Observation/ Fieldnotes...... 48 7. Data Analysis...... 49 Step One: Reading the materials as a Data Set ...... 50 Step Two: Asking Questions of Fieldnotes ...... 51 Step Three: Categorizing...... 52 Step Four: Open Coding...... 52 Step Five: Axial Coding...... 53 Step Six: Selective Coding...... 54 Step Seven: Refining the Theory...... 54 8. Summary ...... 55

FINDINGS ...... 56

1. Introduction...... 56 2. Institutional and Historical Context...... 56 Document Analysis/Results...... 56 Observation Results...... 61 Interview Highlights/Results...... 63 Interpretive Summary ...... 67 3. Exhibition Policy and Management...... 69 Document Analysis/Results...... 70 Observation Results...... 82 Interview Highlights/Results...... 87

v Interpretive Summary ...... 92 4. Collection Policy and Management...... 94 Document Analysis/Results...... 94 Observation Results...... 102 Interview Highlights/Results...... 103 Interpretive Summary ...... 107 5. Educational Policy and Management...... 108 Document Analysis/Results...... 108 Observation Results...... 114 Interview Highlights/Results...... 116 Interpretive Summary ...... 119 6. Summary ...... 121

CONCLUSIONS…...... 122

1. Introduction...... 122 2. Results and Interpretation for Prefigured Foci...... 122 Focus 1: Organizational Structure...... 122 Focus 2: Collection Strategies ...... 123 Focus 3: Function of Physical Space ...... 125 Focus 4: Public Support and Collaboration ...... 125 Focus 5: Display Techniques ...... 126 3. Emergent Themes/Generated Concepts...... 126 Theme 1: What to Present in a Design Museum...... 127 Theme 2: What Education to Provide in a Design Museum...... 128 Theme 3: What to Collect in a Design Museum...... 129 4. Summary of Best Practices...... 131 5. Implications for Further Research and Practice...... 133

APPENDICES ...... 134 A. Interview Protocol...... 134 B. Case Analysis Form (Example)...... 135 C. Memo (Example)...... 136 D. Human Subject Approval...... 137 E. Floor Plans and an Example of Exhibition Layout ...... 138 F. The Cooper-Hewitt’s Collection Management Policy Document ...... 140

REFERENCES ...... 157

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...... 163

vi

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Phases in the Development of an Actual Exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt …..... 72 Table 2: Role-Ordered Display of Tasks of Staff Members at the Cooper-Hewitt ……… 82 Table 3: Time-Ordered Display of Stages in Exhibition Development ………………..... 83

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Museums Quartier Wien in Austria …………………………………………. 38 Figure 2: Museums Quartier Wien in Austria………………….…………………...….. 38 Figure 3: The Pompidou Center in ……………………………...……...…..…..... 38 Figure 4: The Pompidou Center in Paris……………………………………...……….. 38 Figure 5: The Pompidou Center in Paris …………………………………..……....….. 39 Figure 6: The Pompidou Center in Paris ………………………………..…………….. 39 Figure 7: The Palais de Tokyo in Paris…………………………………..…………….. 39 Figure 8: The Palais de Tokyo in Paris…………………………………..…………….. 39 Figure 9: MOMA in …………………………………..……………….. 39 Figure 10: MOMA in New York City………………………………………..…….…... 39 Figure 11: The Wolfsonian Design Museum in Miami………………………………... 40 Figure 12: The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City……….….. 40 Figure 13: Organizational Structure of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum .... 58 Figure 14: The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Facade...... 61 Figure 15: The Entrance Floor Plan...... 62 Figure 16: The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Floor Plan...... 62 Figure 17: The Solos Exhibition 1...... 77 Figure 18: The Solos Exhibition 2...... 77 Figure 19: The Installation Process 1...... 85 Figure 20: The Installation Process 2...... 86 Figure 21: The 2006 Summer Design Institute Group Picture...... 114

viii

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the structure and policies of a contemporary western design museum. In so doing, the role of design in society, the characteristics that distinguish design from art, and the history of design were explored, and selected existing design museums throughout the world were reviewed. In addition, the notions of design and design museums were defined and discussed in the context of museums and socio-cultural studies, particularly in relation to why and how design museums have shaped and been shaped by cultural and political knowledge in Europe and the United States. The exemplar museum chosen for onsite research was the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. As a design museum that has provided support, education, exhibitions, employment, and empowerment to since the early 1970s, the Cooper- Hewitt provided a fitting resource for the development of a grounded theory of design museums that culminated in description of the design museum’s policies and practices, the first step in looking for best practices. Established qualitative research methods were used to create a conceptual framework from which to approach the research questions and to provide an ethnographic tool guiding immersion, description, and interpretation. The researcher functioned as the primary research instrument, using the tools of onsite observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. The study indicated as that represented by the Cooper-Hewitt, a design museum is an important arena for the formation of social identity. Further, a design museum is distinct from other forms of museums in scope and purpose. A design museum seeks to demonstrate how design and the built environment impact the social, cultural, historical, aesthetical, and economic wellbeing of society. It honors and lends recognition to past design achievements, and serves as an educational resource for design students and professionals, as well as the community at large. At the same time, a design museum can benefit from the use of marketing strategies to expand their reach and further its missions. Such steps are important, since design museums have become part of a new mode of museum that both reflects and generates culture.

ix The final generated concepts from this study describe best practices related to different, fundamental aspects of a design museum: 1) What to present in a design museum, 2) What education to provide in a design museum, and 3) What to collect in a design museum. More specifically, in observing and reflecting on a project from its beginning to its final execution, certain major issues became apparent. Among these issues were the role and goal of design exhibitions, the role of curators, exhibition policies and guidelines, interaction among departments, the role of , a constructivist approach, effectiveness of the process of designing, purpose of design education, diverse programs for diverse audiences, rationale for collections design work, categorization and concentration areas of the collection, and the collections policy. In all, this study makes a significant contribution toward the eventual development of design museums.

x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Introduction This study is based on the assumption that individual perceptions of design are socially constructed, and deeply rooted in the history of our social relations, which are reflected in everyday life (Bennett, 1995; Doordan, 1995; Hooper-Greenhill, 1992; Margolin, 2002; Maroevic, 1998; Morrison & Twyfold, 1994; Woodham, 1997). A number of different theories have shaped the perspectives that inform this research, including those developed in the contexts of the philosophical frameworks of socialism, modernism, postmodernism, and constructivism. Design constructs society, and great social ideas build the world around us (Anderson & Milbrandt; 2005, Bennett, 1995; Doordan, 1995; Hooper-Greenhill, 1992; Margolin, 2002; Maroevic, 1998; Morrison & Twyford, 1994; Woodham, 1997). The twentieth century was fraught with war, genocide, and suffering on a horrific scale, but it also gave rise to many dreams, including dreams about how design can become a gateway to a better world. Since the traditional fine arts, such as drawing, , and , play only a small role in our lives today, the field of design has come into greater prominence (Anderson & Milbrandt, 2005). Carried increasingly by newer media, design art surrounds us and exerts ever more influence over our values and decisions. Design belongs to the realm of culture (Margolin, 2002; Morrison & Twyford, 1994). We need to think of design as a practice within culture that can be studied using the methods that have been employed to understand other cultural practices and their resulting artifacts (Margolin, 2002). The idea that knowledge is culturally relative, and that design exists as a potential language of relationship among societies, remains crucial to scholarship in the field of design (Lupton & Miller, 1996). Maroevic (1998) has noted that design involves culture, knowledge, and values. Another of the assumptions on which this study is based is that design museums enrich a society by fostering its cultural and social heritage and interpreting and communicating the messages of that heritage (Margolin, 2002). In this research, design is thought to influence the creation of various relationships between a society and its heritage, the most obvious being its cultural identity. My interest in design museums stems from my undergraduate major in visual . In South Korea, no professional design museum exists to showcase the

1 work of the many great designers there. While art museums abound, no museum is devoted uniquely to the work of design. Thus, students and others who wish to see and learn from designers have no special place from which to gain inspiration. In seeking to explore my research interests in design museums, I sought a direct experience using my own eyes. Accordingly, I went into the field investigate design museum facilities in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The design museums I visited include the Gent Design Museum in Gent, Belgium; the MQ (Museum Quartier) in Vienna, Austria; the Pinakothec Der Modern Design Museum in Munchen, Germany; and the Stedelijk Design Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I also visited the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York City. My experiences in these museums provided me with many insights into the significant differences between general art museums and design museums. In addition, I found that each design museum differed in terms of its mission statements, collections, exhibitions, display styles, and policies. Based on this foundation, I sought to better understand design museums, with the ultimate goal of developing design museum concepts for South Korea that connect general audiences, designers, and companies. Statement of Purpose The primary purpose of this research was to examine the structure and policies of a contemporary Western design museum as a paradigm of excellence. As a design museum that has provided support, education, exhibitions, employment, and empowerment to designers since the early 1970s, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum was used as the exemplar for this study. Using established methods for developing grounded theory (Glaser, 1992; Patton, 2002; Strauss & Corbin, 1998), the study culminated in the best practice describing the relationships between a design museum’s policies and practices. In achieving this end, the study was intended to illuminate the significant aspects of this particular design museum, including its distinct mission statement, collections, exhibitions, display styles, and policies, in the larger context of other design museums. Design museums are useful for studying design, including conceptualization, planning, and evaluation, from the point of view of the . In addition, such museums help to reveal the designer’s vocabulary, way of visual thinking, processes, design documentation, and results. Wright (1989) noted that while art museums wish to enlarge the aesthetic experiences of their audiences by connecting to their personal life experiences, the manner in which art is presented in most art museums limits the

2 opportunity of the audience to learn about or appreciate other aesthetically-framed objects, like design products. Unfortunately, most design works lose their meaning using traditional approaches to the display of . Thus, the focus of this study was on the identification of museum practices that are specifically geared toward maximizing the effectiveness of the display of design art. Greater knowledge of design and designing can help individuals gain an increased capacity to absorb, criticize, and evaluate a wide range of influences in society and culture (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). Thus, the extended goal of this study was to provide concepts that will eventually connect general audiences and designers in South Korea. To that end, I analyzed the policies and structures of selected design museums in Europe in order to provide a conceptual foundation for my study of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and inform my interest in the creation of a design museum in South Korea. My own interest in design and design museums inspired this project, the ultimate purpose of which was to begin to develop concepts that contribute to the creation of new design museums and add to the knowledge base in art education and arts administration. Using a qualitative method to develop grounded theory (Glaser, 1992; Patton, 2002; Strauss & Corbin, 1998), I conducted on-site research at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Through document analysis, observation, and interview, I sought to generate a theory about the relationships between a museum's organizational structure, collection strategies, functions of the physical space, and public support and collaboration as a means of answering the research questions below. Research Question The research question posed in this study is: What are the best practices of the Cooper- Hewitt National Design Museum as seen by selected stakeholders in relation to its: (a) organizational structure, (b) collection strategies, (c) function of physical space, (d) public support and collaboration, and (e) display techniques? Research Design Because the purpose of this study was to understand the policies and practices of a design museum and to generate theoretical concepts for the ways in which such a museum is structured, a grounded theory approach was used to make sense of the collection and analysis of the data (Strauss, 1990). Three primary methods were used for data collection: document

3 analysis, observation, and interviews (Anderson, 2000; Eisner, 1998). To set the foundations of the study I collected and analyzed documents from and about design museums, particularly to Cooper-Hewitt which set the parameters and focus of the study. I visited the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City from March 2006 to July 2006 and stayed in NYC while I researched the organization. I interviewed the Cooper-Hewitt staff and observed the organization as a social space, as I observed its daily operations and interactions and searched for patterns and categories (Eisner, 1997). During the course of observations I talked to study participants, both formally and informally (Seidman, 1998) The qualitative nature of this research was appropriate for generating a theory of the structures and policies of a design museum, as little such research on this topic has been conducted (Creswell, 1994; Strauss, 1990). The framing foci of my research question, organizational structure, collection strategies, functions of physical space, public support and collaboration, and display techniques, emerged from the literature review and may be considered pre-figured foci (Eisner, 1998). At the same time, I stayed alert to other themes that arose during the course of the study; these were emergent foci (Eisner, 1998). I utilized an open, axial, and selected procedure for coding the data I collected (Strauss, 1990). Finally, I presented theoretical concepts as to potentially best practices both in linear, written form and suggested guidelines for new design museums (Creswell, 1998). Rationale Studies based largely on international museums have stressed the modernity, efficiency, and progressiveness of the museums (Wright, 1989). Design museums have become part of a new mode of museum that simultaneously reflects and generates culture (Maroevic, 1998). Such museums are important for those social, political, and commercial leaders who make decisions that affect what does and does not get designed (Margolin, 2002; Maroevic, 1998). Design museums help to engender an appreciation of ordinary objects and enhance our understanding of how objects and mass-produced images have been used to effect social, political, and technological change. After examining these objects, visitors can come away with a heightened sensitivity to these relationships in contemporary society (Margolin, 2002). In this way, design museums help us to face the ever-changing social and cultural elements in the everyday world. On metropolitan and national levels, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

4 champions itself as the only museum in the U.S. devoted solely to design (Bloemink & Cunningham, 2004). The reputation of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is one of the reasons it was chosen as the focus of the study. This, along with the Cooper-Hewitt's status as the only national design museum in America, qualifies it as an exemplar. This study is useful in its purpose of evaluating a current/extant design museum and developing guidelines for the creation of new design museums. One of the most relevant considerations motivating this study concerned the need for a design museum in South Korea that will enable its citizens to study , conceptualization, planning, and evaluation from a designer’s point of view. South Koreans need the opportunity to learn the designer’s vocabulary, ways of visual thinking, processes, methods of design documentation, and results. In essence, then, one ultimate goal of this study was to provide a means to connect general audiences with designers in South Korea. Toward that end this study provides organizational and management information as well as insights into the practice of a design museum. The findings directly benefit the fields of design museum collection management, policy, practice, and knowledge creation. Scope, Assumptions, and Limitations In the course of this study, I examined how design museums have been created, developed, structured, and focused on one design museum in the United States as an exemplar, observing, interviewing and doing document analysis is toward the end of generating grounded theory of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. In qualitative research, the researcher is the main data-gathering instrument (Anderson, 2000; Eisner, 1998). Due to the flexibility of qualitative research in data collection and processing (Eisner, 1998; Seidman, 1998), the researcher can use his or her opinions to enrich data interpretation. My goal in this study was to maintain a balance between objectivity and sensitivity in the course of this research, though it is obvious that misinterpretations can result in the iterative process of conducting document analysis, observation, and interview. As one means of validating my analyses, I asked respondents to read my initial conceptualizations and comment on how well they seem to fit their cases. This “member checking” (Merriam, 1998) was one means of increasing validity and reliability in data collection. Even in qualitative inquiry, objectivity was necessary for arriving at an impartial and accurate interpretation of the data I collected at the Cooper-Hewitt. I tried to remain open, and to

5 engender a willingness to listen and give voice to respondents so as to represent their perceptions as accurately as possible (Seidman, 1998). I also tried to obtain multiple viewpoints of an event in order to triangulate the various perceptions of different actors in the same situation (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992). Thus, when gathering data on an event or phenomenon, as through the use of interviews and observations, I interviewed and observed multiple and varied actors within the situation (Begley, 1996; Sandelowski, 1996). Sensitivity was required in order to perceive the subtle nuances and meanings in the data and to recognize the connections between concepts (Anderson, 2000). As in all research, both objectivity and sensitivity were necessary for making discoveries (Begley, 1996; Sandelowski, 1996) and result in a transactive account (Eisner, 1998) which is the result of interplay between my subjective intuition and the facts of the matter. My previous experiences at design museums and review of the literature resulted in a major assumption that guided my study, that is, design museums create different exhibitions, spaces, dynamics, languages, and protocols than that of general art museums. I also assumed that my findings would have implications for art education and arts administration in that my analysis of an exemplary design museum would facilitate connections between museum studies theory and museum practice. As for limitations, I was aware that I could never be completely free of my biases, as so many are unconscious and a part of my cultural inheritance. Nevertheless, I tried to avoid having preconceptions as much as possible. In addition, because I conducted a single organization study, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, there may be limitations on the extent to which generalizations can be made to other design museums around the world. This is to say that while the conclusions and recommendations I drew may have relevance for other design museums, they necessarily reflect only those understandings gained from this single case (Eisner, 1998). Definition of Key Terms I have defined a list of key terms and concepts that occur within the context of this study. Categories- concepts that stand for phenomena (Strauss, 1997). Collections- the collected objects of a museum acquired and preserved because of their potential value as examples, as reference material, or as objects of aesthetic or educational importance (Burcaw, 1997). Collections manager- a person specially trained in the preventive care and management of objects and specimens, their documentation, and associated information.

6 Curator- a person who is directly responsible for the collections and subject matter divisions of the museum, and who has the advanced education and training necessary for the responsibility (Burcaw, 1997). Design- a term signifying all of the objects that surround us: the clothes we wear, the products we use, the vehicles we ride in, and the media that communicate with us graphically (Marcus, 2002). There are two main categories in the design field: and (Woodham, 1997). Graphic Design includes , packaging, , corporate logos, poster art, multi-media (animation, , , interface design), editorial design, and . Industrial Design includes , design, and transportation design. , , and are closely related areas (Woodham, 1997). Design Museum- a museum focused on design that covers product, graphic, and architectural design. With holdings of a quarter of a million objects, the National Design Museum as a case in point, is one of the largest repositories of design in the world. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum draws on more than a century of collecting, documenting, and studying design (Yelavich, 2001). Deutsche Werkbund- a coalition of designers and industrialists formed following a 1906 exhibition of applied art in Dresden, Germany. The Deutsche Werkbund’s aims came about in response to the idea that the rapid industrialization and modernization of Germany posed a threat to its national culture (Julier, 2005). Diagrams- visual devices that depict the relationships among concepts (Strauss, 1997). Dimensions- the range along which general of a category vary, giving specification to a category and variation to the theory (Strauss, 1997). Exhibition- a form of interpretation; a complete presentation including not only objects, but their contexts, meanings, histories, importance, and so forth (Edson & Dean, 1996). Exhibition Designer- person who the display of original documents or copies thereof for educational and cultural purposes (Bellardo & Bellard, 1992). Memos- the researcher’s record of analysis, thoughts, interpretations, questions, and directions for further data collection (Strauss, 1997). Open coding- the analytic process through which concepts are identified and their properties and dimensions are discovered in data (Strauss, 1997).

7 Phenomena- central ideas in the data represented as concepts (Strauss, 1997). Properties- characteristics of a category, the delineation of which defines and gives it meaning (Strauss, 1997). Registrar- an individual with broad responsibilities in the development and enforcement of policies and procedures pertaining to the acquisition, management, and disposition of collections. Records pertaining to the objects for which the institution has assumed responsibility are maintained by the registrar. Usually, the registrar also handles arrangements for accessions, loans, packing, shipping, storage, customs, and insurance as they relate to museum material (Nauert, 1979). Selective coding- the process of integrating and refining the theory (Strauss, 1997). Theoretical saturation- the point in category development at which no new properties, dimensions, or relationships emerge during analysis. Summary Within the context of larger considerations about the creation and development of design museums in Europe and the United States, this research is a case study of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. As the methodological approach to this study is qualitative, the Cooper-Hewitt served as the location for the collection of on-site data through document analysis, observation, and interview. Using these methods, I sought to learn about the museum’s organizational structure, collection strategies, functions of the physical space, and public support and collaboration as a means of identifying themes, connections, and deeper meanings that signify the nature of the design museum. The extended purpose of this endeavor was to develop concepts for the creation of a design museum in South Korea. In the next chapter I review salient literature related to design and design museums.

8 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction The following section contains a review of the research literature on design, generally, and on design museums, as public organizations, more specifically. The literature review is comprised of four sections: (a) the conceptual framework, (b) characteristics and qualities of design as distinct from the fine arts, (c) design history, and (d) a review of design museums. Throughout the following literature review I will define and investigate the notion of design and design museums in the context of museums and socio-cultural studies. In addition, I explore why and how design museums have shaped and been shaped by cultural and political knowledge in Europe and America (Anderson & Milbrandt, 2005; Bennett, 1995; Doordan, 1995; Hooper- Greenhill, 1992; Margolin, 2002; Maroevic, 1998; Morrison & Twyford, 1994; Woodham, 1997). Conceptual Framework This study is grounded in theoretical conceptions of the relationship between personal and social development and visual/material culture, specifically with regard to design (Anderson & Mildbrandt, 2005). Morrion & Twyford (1994) have described design as a field of endeavor with economic and industrial significance, both with regard to its role in promoting flexible and creative attitudes towards industry, and in developing responsible citizenship in our technical and material society. Thus, design and designing take on added importance when one considers the social and cultural functions they perform. What is more significant than whether design is beautiful, however, is what it does (Anderson & Mildbrandt, 2005). Understanding the social and cultural functions of objects can only enhance one's appreciation of their design. Design Museums and Social Theories From a social viewpoint, design museums are powerful instruments for the shaping of society, individual consciousness, and knowledge (Hill, 2005). Both Bennett (1995) and Hooper- Greenhill (1992) have examined the ways in which modern museums produce a self-improving, disciplined population. Bennett (1995) has identified museums, from the nineteenth century onward, as the most notable element of a trend in which culture was enlisted in the task of governing. Hooper-Greenhill (1992) has tried to show that museum displays, and the knowledge they produce, are governed by the epistemological structures identified by Foucault (1972).

9 It is undoubtedly true that the museum as a social institution implies a certain conception of the world and of ways of knowing, and without it, no one would collect, or store and display the items that make up collections (Bennett, 1995). Foucault’s (1972) ideas about power lead us to see the museum as a social institution, a producer of knowledge, and a public building shaping space. This conception takes in to account the use museums make of theoretical disciplines, design and the deployment of internal space, and of people and things within that space (Foucault, 1972). Dickie (1974) also asserted that institutional systems in the art world, like museums, galleries, and art schools, have the power to inscribe meaning. Maroevic (1998) has noted that design includes culture, knowledge, and values. One of the assumptions on which this study is based is that design museums enrich a society by fostering its cultural and social heritage and interpreting and communicating the messages of that heritage. In this research, design is thought to influence the creation of various relationships between a society and its heritage, the most obvious being its cultural identity. Design and Mass Consumerism In the early-nineteenth century, the birth of design products and innovations in technology, combined with some important demographic, economic, and cultural changes, induced both a dramatic expansion of art-labor employment and mass-design production. Around this time, Karl Marx (1818-83) heavily influenced sociological thinking related to mass production and consumerism (Dorn, 1999). Marx viewed society as engaged in class struggles that would ultimately create a new and more advanced social structure. Doordan (1995) has noted that the first component in the design revolution of the 1830s and 1840s was a striking economic and demographic change in which a large portion of the population—namely, the middle and lower-middle classes—became increasingly urbanized and experienced a notable increase in disposable income. These individuals became the first great mass of consumers in the modern sense, and in so doing, exerted enormous pressure on manufacturers to speed up production of cheap household and personal goods. Accompanying this shift was a second upheaval, a bourgeois social and cultural revolution that supported the idea of design as a way of communicating certain social ideals (Doordan, 1995). Design sought to convey certain historic truths and moral precepts; hence the values an object conveyed became just as important as its strictly utilitarian purpose. Thus, by the 1840s, design had become highly didactic in purpose and dedicated to the idea of the union of art and industry.

10 In the late nineteenth century, industrialization transformed every aspect of American life (The Toledo Museum of Art, 2002). Changes in technology—machinery, sources of power, such as coal and oil, and raw materials—were important part of this transformation, but the shifts in American society went much further. There were vast changes in communications, and in how goods and people were transported and information was transmitted, altering perceptions of space and time. Other changes occurred in the nature of economic organization, business structures and management, and finance and the structure of markets. “A swelling flow of goods and services involved complex interrelationships with sweeping patterns of change in society— in the locations in which people aspired to live, the concepts behind how they lived, their values, how they organized their homes, and the kind of life considered appropriate for them” (The Toledo Museum of Art, 2002, p. 133). In that respect, there was significant growth that attracted the attention of designers, such as products for industrial and retail use and packaging for a broad spectrum of goods (The Toledo Museum of Art, 2002). In the early twentieth century, technological improvements in manufacturing brought about mass production and consumerism. This thrust, to some extent, improved living standards and created and ensured the need for variety in consumer products and services (Alexander, 2003; Nord, 2000). Mass production, service industries, and leisure industries have enabled design to become professionalized through flourishing studios and agencies (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). The long-standing ideological dominance of modernism has also been underpinned by moral and political connotations, given that many of its most vociferous opponents were closely associated with repressive regimes (Dorn, 1999), such as those in National Socialist Germany and Stalinist Russia. The modernists saw themselves as the creators of a ‘machine age’ aesthetic which, freed from the shackles of historicism, explored new forms and materials that were felt to be symbolically compatible with the mass production capacity of a progressive industrial culture (Woodham, 1997). Consequently, this study emerges from a socio-historic theoretical perspective of design (Berger, 1972; Vygotsky, 1986). Design cannot be separated from our society but must be understood in relation to a variety of economic and sociological phenomena like industries, organizations, occupations, and markets. The link between economics, sociology, and design has lead many scholars to believe that design could eventually come to dominate our society in ways

11 of understanding design objects in the context of the period in which it was produced that came from an understanding of the theories and philosophies prevailing at the time (Bennett, 1995; Doordan, 1995; Hooper-Greenhill, 1992; Margolin, 2002; Maroevic, 1998; Morrison & Twyford, 1994). Characteristics and Qualities of Design What is Design? According to Marcus (2002), dictionaries are of no help in understanding the concept of design. Most define design as a sketch, concept or process but ignore the common usage that describes what these activities lead to. The root meaning of design involves the idea of setting down plans and schemes (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). Although the modern usage of the term design has widened, it still retains the essence of preparation and forethought concerning creative work. Design signifies all of the objects that surround us: the clothes we wear, the products we use, the vehicles we ride in, the media that communicate with us graphically (Anderson & Milbrandt, 2005; Marcus, 2002). Anderson & Mildbrandt (2005) have noted that the design arts, once represented by unique handmade works, have been replaced by manufactured items and habitats (clothes, cars, furniture, houses), for which psychological cues are provided so that they will seem useful, attractive, and desirable. Design is an ever-changing and evolving process based upon human achievement and technical prowess (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). It is what individuals and organizations make of it as they think about and discuss future improvements or change. Designing is an adventure that relies on observation and intelligence to explore new or modified possibilities (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). As a part of the human imagination, design is expressed in objects and activities, and represents a powerful method of synthesizing many forms of knowledge and experience. Because design is a human activity, its study should not be concerned solely with the processes involving the form, function, and costs of artifacts, models, systems or images. Woodham (1997) asserted that there are two main categories in the design field: graphic design and industrial design. Graphic design includes typography, packaging, advertising, corporate logos, poster art, multi-media (animation, illustration, interface design, and web design), editorial design, and book design. Industrial design includes product design, furniture design, and transportation design. Architecture, interior design, and photography are closely

12 related areas. Woodham (1997) also has noted that design means many things. To the general public, design may be about , function, and user-experience. To designers it is a craft, a form of creative expression—a vision. For many companies today, design is a strategy capable of branding products and creating innovation to boost competitiveness. In summary, design is a mixture of trends, tasks, aesthetic ideals, problem-solving, and decision-making that reflects many fields of knowledge that are historically, socially, and culturally located (Anderson & Milbrandt; 2005, Bennett, 1995; Doordan, 1995; Hooper- Greenhill, 1992; Margolin, 2002; Maroevic, 1998; Morrison & Twyford, 1994; Woodham, 1997). Defining Design as Distinct from Fine Arts According to Bloemink & Cunningham (2004), design and art are both different and the same. The long relationship between the fine and has been both harmonious and fractious. In modern Western society, scholars have found it necessary to distinguish between aesthetics and function, between the spiritual in art, and the corporeal in design. Yet, at the same time, design encompasses, as well as operates within, many areas of knowledge and understanding, especially those of art and technology (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). Design can be considered a multifarious process, one that has been associated in recent times with the making, selling, and using of artifacts, as well as systems and images derived from general manufacturing. Design originates from many human endeavors, however, most notably in associated with drawing and planning. For Vasari (1511-1574), the first art historian who wrote about Renaissance art and artists, …disegno meant design, draughtsmanship, or simply drawing according to the context … design was the foundation of the fine arts in the philosophical sense that in the creative act the artist has (implanted in his mind by God) an Idea of the object he is reproducing. The figure he draws or carves must reflect both what he sees and the perfect form of design existing in his mind. (Renna, 1568. p. 68) Thus, in Vasari’s terms, design is the basis of art (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). As Danto (1964) observed, by the time of the Renaissance, as painters and sculptors lost their anonymity and became identified by name, “the beautiful and the practical were as much as undifferentiated unity as are, in philosophical truth, the body and the mind” (p. 75). A number of Renaissance painters, including Raphael, Botticelli, and Michelangelo, practiced art that was

13 both functional and decorative. For example, in addition to Michelangelo's various architectural projects, , and sculpture, he designed functional objects, including a salt cellar, an altar table, and an elaborate candelabrum (Bloemink & Cunningham, 2004). Both art and design are about researching forms of human sensuality and perception. In a constantly changing society, art and design become places where strategies for forming future living space are realized. Design History Introduction The history of design, and especially certain key events in this history, reveals the key connections that have brought together many forms of understanding to produce new and exciting designs (Doordan, 1995; Morrison & Twyford, 1994). The institution of design emerged out of the modern in the early twentieth century and has been consolidated into a profession over the last fifty years. Its theoretical base is grounded in avant-garde movements and organizations such as Constructivism, de Stijl, and the Bauhaus (Lupton & Miller, 1996). Each of these movements will be described in this section. Lupton & Miller (1996) have argued that design history should be understood not as a catalogue of style or a canon of formal rules, but as a complex enterprise that has engaged political, economic, and intellectual facets of culture (Lupton & Miller, 1996; Margolin, 2002). Design history is difficult to define, as scholars still grapple with what it encompasses and when it began. The problem of chronology is more difficult for design historians than for art historians, since the beginnings of art are generally acknowledged to date to prehistoric times. While for some historians, the history of design begins with the onset of mass production in the eighteenth century, others consider design to be evident in the earliest manifestations of culture (Margolin, 2002). For the purposes of this study, any analysis of design history will focus on those movements with the greatest current impact on design, as well as retrospective questions about how and why such movements were needed. The Impact of the Industrial Revolution Morrison & Twyford (1994) have noted that as the eighteenth century unfolded, the nature of work and the techniques of manufacture began to move slowly away from a "craft" based method of production in which the designer and maker were usually the same person, to a gradual separation of these two tasks. As the Industrial Revolution came about, the value of

14 using design drawings to control production and pass along technical information to the different people involved in making and building things became apparent (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). The influence of industrialization on design, then, was strong, particularly in regard to the processes involved in mechanization (Lupton & Miller, 1996; Margolin, 2002; Morrison & Twyford, 1994). Manufacturers gradually came to realize that they could make even more money if they produced useful objects that were also beautiful. Thus, in Victorian manufacturing and trading, design became important (Margolin, 2002). Design was seen as the necessary ingredient in giving "mercantile value" to manufactured products– a preoccupation that still exists today (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). The Growing Influence of the Modern Movement Much of the built environment in which we now live, as well as the products that surround us, owe their style to the philosophy of the Modern Movement (Doordan, 1995; Morrison & Twyford, 1994; Wilson, 2004; Woodham, 1997). With its origins grounded in the teachings of the Bauhaus, an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933 (Woodham, 1997), a new breed of architects, artists, and designers looked upon the creative use of materials such as steel, concrete, and glass, along with the growth of modern machine processes, as an opportunity to integrate aesthetics and mechanization (Morrison & Twyford, 1994). The Modern Movement was to have a profound influence first on European, and later on American design practice. The movement preached the value of simplicity of form, of form following the function of the design. Applied decoration was abandoned and the aesthetics of the design were thought to be best cultured from the technologies of production and a fidelity to the materials being used. The students of the Bauhaus studied elements of shape, form, and color as part of their foundational courses and much of this learning can be recognized in the use of geometric elements to be found in their designs for architecture, and products (Morrison & Twyford, 1994; Woodham, 1997). The Modern Movement in design is generally seen as having originated in the theories and practice of the design reformers of the late nineteenth century, gathering impetus in the years before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and coming to fruition in the early 1920s (Lupton & Miller, 1996; Woodham, 1997).

15 Modernism and the History of Design For several decades following the publication of Pevsner’s (1936) seminal text, Pioneers of the Modern Movement, accounts of the history of twentieth-century design were dominated by investigations into the Modern Movement and its antecedents in the design reform movement of the nineteenth century. The reasons for this are historically and ideologically complex, and may be seen to derive from the widespread availability, for historical analysis, of the considerable legacy of the modernists’ output (Pevsner, 1936). Their work has survived in terms both of design production and the written word, as evidenced in the collections of many leading museums, art libraries, and archives throughout the Western industrialized world (Doordan, 1995; Woodham, 1997). Modernism, the enduring byproduct of the Modern Movement, has generated widespread experimentation and production in many fields of design, including appliances, ceramics, glassware, furniture and fittings, carpets, textiles, typography, posters, wallpaper, and so on (Woodham, 1997). Modernism is generally characterized by clean, geometric forms, the use of modern materials like chromium-plated steel and glass, and plain surfaces articulated by the abstract manipulation of light and shade (Woodham, 1997). Following the Modern Movement, when decoration was applied its appearance generally conformed to the abstract aesthetic which had been forged by the artistic avant-garde in the years leading up to World War I. This aesthetic had found fuller expression in the work of the Constructivists in Eastern Europe, those associated with De Stijl, and others in the early 1920s. All characteristics of modernism were felt to be unambiguous affirmations of twentieth-century life, symbolically attuned to the possibilities of modern materials and manufacturing processes (Woodham, 1997). The Influence of De Stijl According to Woodham (1997), progressive design initiatives were taken up in various places during the years spanning World War I, but especially in Holland, which remained neutral. The most important event was the De Stijl group, which was founded by Theo VanDoesburg in 1917 (Muller-Brochmann, 1971; Thomson, 1997). The De Stijl group included fine artists, architects, and designers, and its early outlook was conditioned by the work and ideas of the painter , who had been considerably influenced by the work of the French Cubist painters before the outbreak of war (Muller-Brochmann, 1971; Thomson, 1997). The De Stijl designers sought to explore an elemental design vocabulary in their search

16 for a modern, harmonious aesthetic (Muller-Brochmann, 1971; Thomson, 1997). Equilibrium was to be achieved through the balance of verticals and horizontals and the restriction of the design palette to the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue as well as black and white (Woodham, 1997). This quest for modern, abstract form, symbolically reflective of the twentieth century, was also taking place elsewhere, as in Russia, where Constructivism became an important focus in progressive design circles (Muller-Brochmann, 1971; Thomson, 1997; Woodham, 1997). Constructivism Following the October Russian Revolution of 1917, many Russian avant-garde artists and designers committed themselves to propaganda through a variety of media and venues, including theatre and poster design (Woodham, 1997). Artists such as Wassily Kandinsky (who went on to work at the Bauhaus in Germany) believed in the primacy of the creative expression of the individual in art. Others, including Alexander Rodchenko, his wife Varvara Stepanova, and Vladimir Tatlin, committed themselves to work with a more utilitarian bent, geared to the needs of society and employing forms compatible with the potential of modern mass-production technology (Thomson, 1997). In their conceptions of society and pragmatic approach, the work of such artists gradually moved toward a post-modernist position. The Bauhaus (1919-1933) The first design-oriented exhibition documented by scholars occurred in 1919 and was founded on the aesthetics of the Bauhaus (Doordan, 1995; Muller-Brochmann, 1971; Thompson, 1997; Woodham, 1997). As such, it represents an important event in design history (Muller- Brochmann, 1971; Thompson, 1997; Woodham, 1997), since the Bauhaus trend impacted the artistic society of its time with an intersectional and radical wave (Muller-Brochmann, 1971; Thompson, 1997; Woodham, 1997). The Bauhaus style was first established by the architect Walter Gropius (1883-1969) at Weimar, Germany. Gropius emphasized an object’s function through the use of clear and simple forms with little ornamentation, a style that counteracted prior ornamental and stylistic trends (Muller-Brochmann, 1971; Thompson, 1997; Woodham, 1997). The Bauhaus was the initiator of a new unity of art and technology (Muller-Brochmann, 1971; Thompson, 1997; Woodham, 1997). In other words, it was a movement that sought to integrate art and economics, and to add an element of to art (Thompson, 1997). More than any other art movement, the

17 Bauhaus has been identified as that absolute laboratory of modern design (Doordan, 1995). As such, historical representation of the characteristics of Bauhaus design became a point of reference for situating progressive trends in both preceding and successive periods. The Modernist Approach: Aesthetic Quality The design legacy of many theorists and practitioners of modernism has been extensively preserved in museums. Through its exposure on pedestals or behind glass cases, modernist work has been viewed for its aesthetic qualities, divorced from any real sense of its original everyday context and function (Woodham, 1997). Galleries and museums have been powerful conditioning agents in the establishment of cultural hierarchies (Woodham, 1997). The most celebrated example of representing modernist work is the (MoMA) in New York (Duncan, 1989; Woodham, 1997). The MoMA, more than any other art institution, was instrumental in the development of modernism through exhibitions, acquisitions, and publications (Duncan, 1989). Established in 1929, the MoMA was for many decades closely associated with the promotion of a Bauhaus aesthetic (Woodham, 1997). Its first specifically design-oriented show was the 1934 Machine Art Exhibition, organized by Philip Johnson, with an emphasis on clean, geometric, and classic forms, symbolically and materially attuned to new materials and modern mass-production technology (Woodham, 1997). Later in the 1940’s, shows devoted to the work of Alvar Aalto (a curator at MoMA) and the Bauhaus further consolidated MoMA’s position as a reform-artist for the modern aesthetic, a reputation that was later bolstered by Edgar Kaufmann’s Good Design exhibitions of the 1950s (Woodham, 1997). Such an outlook became closely linked to the cultural imprint of the multinational corporation and what may be seen as the globalization of a very particular kind of modernist . Over the period, this design culture became evident in many exhibitions and museum displays across the world (Woodham, 1997). The Post-Modernist Approach: Perception and Interpretation Elements of such critical, reform-minded practices such as those seen at MoMA were codified by art schools after World War II (Woodham, 1997). Many design textbooks, produced across the history of the profession, reproduce a core of theoretical principles based on abstract painting and gestalt psychology. Kepes’s Language of Vision (1944), Arnheim’s Art and Visual Perception (1954), and Dondis’s A Primer of Visual Literacy (1973) contain recurring themes that are evident in modern .

18 Pervading the above-mentioned works is a focus on perception at the expense of interpretation (Albrecht, Lupton, Owens, & Yelavich, 2003; Lupton & Miller, 1996). Lupton and Miller (1996) described perception as the subjective experience of the individual as framed by the body and brain. Aesthetic theories based on perception favor sensation over intellect, seeing over reading, universality over cultural difference, physical immediacy over social mediation. Modern design pedagogy, an approach to form-making validated by theories of perception, suggests a universal faculty of vision common to all humans of all times, capable of overriding cultural and historical barriers. A study of design oriented around interpretation, on the other hand, would suggest that the "reception of a particular image shifts from one time or place to the next, drawing meaning from conventions of format, style, and symbolism, and from its association with other images and with words" (Lupton & Miller, 1996, p. 78 ). While modern design theory focuses on perception, a historically and culturally self-conscious post-modern approach would center on interpretation. In any event, modern design emerged in response to the Industrial Revolution, when reform-minded artists and artisans tried to impart a critical sensibility to the making of objects and media (Lupton & Miller, 1996; Margolin, 2002; Morrison & Twyford, 1994). Design began to take shape as a critique of industry, yet it gained its mature and legitimate status by becoming an agent of machine production and mass consumption (Lupton & Miller, 1996; Margolin, 2002; Morrison & Twyford, 1994). Consequently, it is clear that design history does not only concern designers. As Margolin (2002) has noted, “After all, design is the source from which most twentieth-century Americans have had to select the very stuff of their daily lives” (p. 170). Design will continue to be a subject of interest to scholars, who believe that the products of design reveal something of significance about human life, and who wish to preserve the legacy of design in design museums. For social, political, and commercial leaders as well, an understanding of design history can be a valuable resource worth cultivating, since it can reveal so much about how we live and how we might live. Design Museums What is a Design Museum? A design museum is a museum that features products, graphics, fashion, and architectural design (State Museum of Applied Arts Munich, 2004). The goal of design museums is to create exhibitions that expand the design community’s own knowledge and understanding

19 of itself and that also speak to the general public about the role and value of design in their lives (State Museum of Applied Arts Munich, 2004). According to Heller & Pettit (1998), design museums aim to demonstrate the impact of design and the built environment on the social, cultural, and economic wellbeing of society. Design museums, like the field of design, have gained enormous importance for their capacity to convey identity and attach meaning (Bunch, 2000; Woodham, 1997). This development is reflected in the establishment of new design museums that position themselves in terms of exhibition topics. Design museums serve to preserve the design legacy of many theorists and practitioners (Woodham, 1997). In these various ways, design museums have become cultural and educational entities for public use (Bunch, 2000). Museum professionals have recognized the importance of issues like classification of objects, exhibition design, and presentation. These issues have played a crucial role in decisions about the content and direction of design museums (Bunch, 2000). Design museums seek to create a new awareness of design and architecture among the general public (McDermott, 2000). As Heller (2002) noted, much of what struck the world as startlingly fresh at MoMA in its early days was the inclusion of design and architecture in a museum context. MoMA demonstrated, in a stimulating and accessible manner, how design and the built environment could impact the social, cultural, and economic well-being of society. Based on the notion that the study of design involves researching forms of human sensuality and perception (Lupton & Miller, 1996), a design museum can be considered a place where strategies for forming future living space are realized. The role of the design museum in this process is its enabling and funding of design production. Each collection in a design museum reflects its own quite specific history as well as aspects of its specific context (McDermott, 2005). The Impact of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Wolfsonian Unlike a traditional museum of the , design museums are concerned exclusively with the products, technologies, and buildings of the industrial and post-industrial world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (McDermott, 2005). Design museums reflect the vast social and technological changes of the past hundred years by collecting products and graphic designs from this period (McDermott, 2005). The Museum of Modern Art has long maintained a design collection (having established

20 a design department in the early 1940s), but this is not the case in most other American art museums, which have relied instead for their displays of functional objects on curators with expertise in the traditional decorative arts (Margolin, 2002). Nevertheless, over the past twenty years, major American art museums have devoted increasing attention to design exhibitions, which attract large audiences and receive extensive reviews in the press. For the most part, these exhibitions have been strongly influenced by a decorative arts approach, reflecting the training of the majority of curators. The one government museum devoted to design in the United States, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, has maintained active exhibition schedules since the late 1970s. The Cooper-Hewitt has numerous design related exhibitions, and includes information about the users of design, an element neglected in other exhibitions (Margolin, 2002). Unlike many other design museums, the Cooper-Hewitt often focuses on cultural issues rather than on the presentation of iconic objects. Ellen Lupton, a curator at the Cooper-Hewitt, has brought a special awareness of social history to the exhibitions (Margolin, 2002). The most recent design museum to open in the United States is the Wolfsonian in Miami Beach, Florida. The museum is still finding its way--in terms of an exhibition philosophy-- but is likely to emphasize the European and American modernist tradition that corresponds to the collecting interests of the museum’s founder, Mitchell Wolfson (Kaplan, 1995). The diversity of interest in design history among American museums mirrors the plurality seen in design history research in the United States (Woodham, 1997). Ranging from the high modern retrospectives of MoMA to shows of less canonical objects presented from a material culture point of view, American museums typically are open to a variety of approaches (Margolin, 2002). More attention is also being paid in many exhibitions to critical interpretation of both the objects and their social and economic contexts. Audiences in Design Museums Design museums aim to bring about a new relationship between industry and the public by trying to raise popular awareness of design and its influence on everyday life, while cultivating in industry and commerce a greater appreciation for the real benefits of making better goods (Usherwood, 1991). This merger of industry and consumer interests will likely help design museums to link the creative preoccupations of art education with the realities of the marketplace. Design museums, then, have cast their nets deliberately wide in order to capture a

21 variety of audiences. They do this in at least four major ways (Usherwood, 1991). First, design museums seek to play a role in formal education by developing school programs designed to dovetail with the requirements of the national curricula. Further, students from many disciplines (art, design, design history, and ) are expected to benefit from the many resources offered by design museums, including study notes, worksheets, slide packs, and videos supporting the displays. In addition, the reference libraries of design museums are intended for use by students as well as by designers, journalists, researchers, people in industry, and the general public. Second, professional designers are expected to use the museum as a source of inspiration, being able to see new work in the museum, and come to an understanding of a product in its entire context (Usherwood, 1991). Third, manufacturers whose products are on display in the museum are given the benefit of exposure in a public venue of unmatched prestige and seriousness, as well as the opportunity to study products that have been successful in the past (Usherwood, 1991). And fourth, there is the offering of exhibitions to the general public. For design museums, all of these audiences constitute the public and everyone is a consumer (Usherwood, 1991). Stephen Bayley, co-founder of the Design Museum in London, has stated that the museum’s first agenda-setting temporary exhibition was concerned with middle-class use (Usherwood, 1991). Perhaps this choice was simply a pragmatic recognition that the more affluent people are, the more likely they are to visit museums. Indeed, as with many other design museums, only the affluent are likely to be able to afford the entry charge, refreshments, and the expensive book-catalogs that are essential to a full comprehension of the exhibitions. Space: Displays and Layout The way in which design museums display their objects and organize their space is their major tool for shaping visitors’ interaction with the art displayed; indeed, these tools are the museum’s most significant methods for creating meaning (Hill, 2005). The nineteenth century saw a whole series of technical advances in building and display techniques, as well as a significant amount of debate over space-related questions (Yanni, 1999). Foucault’s (1972) primary contribution to the issue of open-space arrangement was to point out how the configuration of space is implicated in the exercise of power. He argued that in the architecture of broadly defined social institutions such as prisons and hospitals, a change took

22 place over the course of the eighteenth century as a modern, liberal/progressive state emerged. In Foucault's terms, the nature of power changed from juridico-discursive to governmental. While juridico-discursive power is all about glorifying the monarch, governmental power aims at greater, more continuous efficiency that serves a variety of ends, not just the reinforcement of the monarch’s rule. In the case of prisons, the main characteristic of the new configuration of space that came about in the eighteenth century was that it acted directly to reform inmates, or to encourage self-improvement, by individuating, or making visible. The special arrangement was intended to make visible the good behavior of prisoners to the warders, without the prisoners being able to tell whether anyone was in fact watching them. Foucault described such architecture as a disciplinary apparatus in that it exercised power over a particular population. In recent years, Foucauldian ideas have been applied to the configuration of space in design museums. This analysis has been most fully developed by Bennett (1995), and deals with spaces in which a general population is freely admitted by right. According to Bennett, since the nineteenth-century, the classic museum has functioned as a machine, which, through its layout, polices and even improves the behavior of the visitor, and supplies knowledge that the visitor internalizes through the process of walking around the museum. In support of this analysis, Bennett cited changes in the museum architecture around this time, including the increased use of large halls with galleries that made visitors visible to each other and to attendants, as opposed to the small, cluttered rooms of earlier museums. In addition, the development of linear, chronological schemes of interpretation, the layout of which necessitated a pre-ordained route through the museum, made visitors constrained to follow it. Bennett (1995) stressed the importance of the development of streamlined and defined visitor routes, "one–way systems which do not allow visitors to retrace their steps" (p.101). These routes, along with other changes in post-nineteenth century museums, were the means by which curators and museum managers imposed control and produced knowledge through the spatial arrangement of exhibits that communicate the particular theories and narratives of their curators. As one aspect of this study I will explore whether this same pattern of development can be found in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum during the data collection portion of the study. The History of Design Museums According to Doordan (1995), the purpose of constructing design museums was as an instrument for situating socioartistic boundaries for applied arts production in industrial culture.

23 Design museums were one expression of a much larger series of attempts during the nineteenth century to hold artistic culture together amid the centrifugal forces of industrialization (Woodham, 1997). The origins of the applied arts ideal of historical modeling occurred in the period between 1730 to 1850 (Doordan, 1995). By 1850, the inexpensive, easily reproducible products of machine industry had displaced handcrafts throughout Austria and Germany. As Doordan (1995) has noted, many reactive constituents of their age, museum directors were greatly fearful of the new divisive forces of individualism, specialization, and utilitarianism. They energetically combated the decentering of artistic ideas by industrial irrationality, and sought to bring about a regulating climate for the mass production and consumption of applied arts products. To a great extent, this notion of a rational climate meant the restoration of the traditional artistic values of aristocratic culture (Doordan, 1995). Such museum programs sought, to put it simply, to tame both the machine and industrial society through artistic exemplars. It was in this context that the first public museum of applied arts objects was pioneered in London (Doordan, 1995). Because of early industrialization in Britain, the English reform movement was the first to struggle against the injurious effects of mass production on the handcrafts (Doordan, 1995; Lomas, 2001). The idea of a practical alliance between the applied artist and the manufacturer was propelled by an 1835 report on the state of the arts in England. As a consequence of these efforts, and the financial profits generated by the Great World Exhibition in London in 1851, the first public applied arts museum in Europe, the South Museum (the Victoria & Albert Museum), opened in 1852. Design Archives The Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and New York Public Library have long-established major archives of printed ephemera, but there have been until recent years few collections of design material that have focused on the twentieth century (Margolin, 2002). The Library of Congress has a major poster collection that includes a good deal of twentieth- century material, and the MoMA in New York set a precedent for collecting such material with its archive of poster and other graphic ephemera from the modern period. In recent times, some design professionals, librarians, and curators have begun to recognize the value of design material for research and exhibitions, and a few institutions have taken a leading role in collecting it (Schoener, 1985).

24 The Library of Congress is now seeking to establish a Center for American Architecture, Design, and Engineering to publicize and make use of its collections in these areas, which include more than five million items (Margolin, 2002). Among these collections is a major archive of material by . (The Library of Congress received a grant of $500,000 from IBM, a principal client of Charles and Ray Eames, to process their material and prepare a catalog for a major exhibition of their work). The library joined with the Vitra Design Museum to organize an exhibition based on this archive, and it was opened at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. A number of academic libraries are also collecting design material. Syracuse University, prompted by Arthur Pulos, has begun to assemble the papers of American industrial designers of the early 1960s (Margolin, 2002). Margolin (2002) also has noted that a graphic design archive exists at the Herb Lubalin Study Center for Design and Typography, founded in 1984 at Lubalin’s alma mater, Cooper Union, in New York City. The center, which houses Lubalin’s archives, among others, includes a study center and a gallery. Its first curator, Ellen Lupton, brought a background in design, design history, and theory to the planning of exhibitions that emphasized the communicative as well as the aesthetic aspects of graphic design (Lupton & Miller, 1996). What differentiated the center’s approach to design history under Lupton was its interest in examining design as a process of social communication and relating its exhibitions to issues of design teaching and practice. In 1991, Cooper Union, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and RIT, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, launched a feasibility study for a National Graphic Design Archive, which was to be an electronic database of graphic design images (Margolin, 2002). Such an assemblage of design documentation will be invaluable in advancing design history, and making archival material available to the public. Examples of Design Museums Introduction Since 2004, I have endeavored to learn about prototypical design museums in Europe and America, with particular regard to their mission statements, exhibitions, collections, and public education efforts. After first searching for the hardcopy literature and Internet and confirming the significance and appropriateness of such museums given the purposes of my study, I obtained information through personal visits to the Ghent Design Museum (Belgium), the Design in der Pinakothek der Moderne (Germany), and the Wolfsonian Design Museum in

25 the summer of 2005. Then, I sought out further information on other museums—The Design Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Barcelona Museu de les Arts Decoratives, Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum, and Vitra Design Museum—from their Websites and from museum catalogues at the Florida State University library. The following reports are from data gathered in this manner. The Design Museum in London, UK The Design Museum is the UK’s biggest provider of design education resources and acts as a bridge between the design community, industry, and education (Designmuseum, 2005). Its mission is to excite everyone about design. The Design Museum is a cultural and educational institution that seeks to inspire, inform, and educate the public about design through its exhibitions, learning programs, awards, and research resources. The museum exhibitions are intended to celebrate the contributions design makes to enhancing the quality of daily life. Since being founded in 1989, the Design Museum has come to be considered the UK’s cultural champion of design and has won international acclaim for exhibitions on modern design history and contemporary design innovation (Designmuseum, 2005). Over 200,000 people visited the museum in 2004, a 40% increase over the previous three years. The scope of the museum extends beyond the London area through national and international tours of certain of its exhibitions. The museum’s typical visitor is 18 to 30 years old, and by the Design Museum’s own accounting, 88% of visitors plan to return within six months. The Design Museum aims to raise public awareness and understanding of design by both highlighting design innovation and stimulating public debate. The museum’s promotional materials state that it achieves this goal by analyzing the historic and contemporary development of design in an international context and by exploring: (a) the social and cultural influences that influence design and its use, (b) the impact of new technologies and materials on design, (c) the contribution of design to the economy and industry, (d) the evolution of the design process, (e) design’s impact on sustainability, inclusivity, and quality of life, and (f) the relationship of design with other disciplines and the culture of its time (Designmuseum, 2005). An exhibition at the Design Museum explores the evolution of design and its impact on daily life since the Industrial Revolution. The museum presents a diverse exhibition program by analyzing different design disciplines and approaches to design and designing. While the program seeks to be accessible to the broadest possible public, it also endeavors “to stimulate

26 popular debate and critical discourse by challenging orthodoxies of historic and contemporary design” (Designmuseum, 2005, p. 32). The exhibitions at the Design Museum explore the relationship of design to innovation, functionality, aesthetics, technology, sustainability, inclusivity, the economy and industry, social and cultural trends, and critical discourse (Designmuseum, 2005). Each Design Museum exhibition is contextualized through the use of introductory texts and exhibit captions, as well as corresponding resources on the museum website. All exhibitions are accompanied by a formal education program, which is accessible to students and teachers at all levels and related to the National Curriculum. In addition, the Design Museum offers a wide range of informal learning resources for both younger and older visitors. Education is integral to the mission of the museum, the different areas of which offer a diverse range of design education activities, including: (a) exhibition-related provisions for schools and colleges, (b) out of hours and Saturday Design Challenge projects for school students, (c) some events and online resources for teachers, (d) outreach projects for primary and early years’ pupils, (e) learning and teaching resources for teachers and students at all levels, (f) national outreach projects with regional museums and strategic partners, (g) work-based learning design projects for young people with key agencies, (h) community-based projects for local young people at risk of exclusion, (i) weekend and school holiday creative activities for children, and (j) a wide ranging program of adult learning courses and symposia (Designmuseum, 2005). The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, UK Founded in 1852, the Victoria and Albert Museum is dedicated to arts and crafts and commercial art, the art industry, the decorative arts, and applied arts (Lomas, 2001). From its inception, the educational and didactic role intended for the museum was clearly signaled by its close association with a school of design. The first director of the museum, Henry Cole, believed passionately in the museum’s role as an institution of public education, and that its influence should reach the widest possible audience. In an unprecedented move, and against some opposition, he opened the Victoria & Albert on Sundays and in the evenings to enable working class people to visit the museum. Later, in 1866, he included restaurants in the museum, including one designed by the young firm of William Morris (1834-1896). Cole's main aim was to improve the design of British goods from an artistic perspective by showing examples of historical and contemporary design and craftsmanship to students, artisans, designers, and

27 manufacturers. He thought that if the taste and knowledge of such individuals could be improved, public taste as a whole would be heightened. Cole’s efforts to promote the museum throughout British society influenced many other institutions throughout the world, from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to Vienna’s Museum, für angewandte Kunst, which directly imitated the Victoria & Albert (Victoria & Albert Museum, 2005). Today, the work of the Victoria & Albert Museum is guided by Henry Cole’s vision of a museum devoted to public education for the widest possible audience, as well as to an emphasis on contemporary designs made and sold today (Victoria & Albert Museum, 2005). The recent reaffirmation of that commitment resulted, in part, from a period of research into the history of the Victoria & Albert in the 1980s and early 1990s, and from the desire to address the needs of an unusually large audience of students and professionals in the art and design fields. The Victoria & Albert's contemporary collections are part of a continuum that includes historical objects (Victoria & Albert Museum, 2005). The link between modern objects and its historical collection allows the Victoria and Albert to create exhibitions within a framework different from institutions that deal only with contemporary or modern design. The aesthetic, technical, and historical criteria used for collecting old things with a special emphasis on a history of ownership, is extended as much as possible to contemporary acquisitions. While the Victoria & Albert regularly acquires objects directly from designers, makers, artists, manufacturers, and retailers in order to exhibit for the public the very newest in design and art, it balances this with a desire to own, study, and display objects which possess a richer, more multi- faceted history gained through life in the marketplace. In regard to historical objects it is often the contemporary record, the knowledge of the circumstances of ownership, including the social, cultural and economic context of the object that is valued. Thus, it is entirely appropriate to use a similar framework for collecting recent and new items. Design became a profession, its practitioners became professionals, and from this point on, design museums like the Victoria and Albert Museum set out to build collections of contemporary design. The Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, Germany Established in 1867, the Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum was the first design museum in Germany. The idea for this new type of museum was initially born of economic necessity (Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum, 2005). The prime goal of the museum is to educate the public in order to enhance quality awareness and an aesthetic sense of form in arts and crafts through the creation

28 of a collection of role models and samples (Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum, 2005). The acquisitions at the Kunstgewerbemuseum include contemporary arts and crafts as well as industrial design, with an emphasis on interior design objects such as furniture, luminaries, china, and office furniture. The focus is firmly on the artistic creation, the solution that points the way to the future in terms of creativity, material, form, and innovation. Only products that meet these functional and aesthetic criteria are included in the permanent collection. Thus, the major consideration in collections decisions is not the practical value, but the artistic value, namely the uniqueness of the product (Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum, 2005). These days, the primary goal of the Kunstgewerbemuseum is to create a public platform for enhancing the importance of new product and design ideas. In addition, the Kunstgewerbemuseum seeks to encourage discussion of such topics as the sustainability of products, the appropriate use of resources, the morality behind possessions, and the materials of the future (Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum, 2005). Ghent Design Museum in Ghent, Belgium Based on their catalogue (Ghent Design Museum, 2005), the Ghent Design Museum was founded in 1903. The Ghent acts largely as an educational medium since, as an academic institution, it has both an acquisition and a preservation mission. The exhibition policy of the Ghent is to combine the best of Belgium with the best of design art from abroad. The Ghent has the only collection in the Belgium (Ghent Design Museum, 2005). The exuberant period of Art Nouveau, both with its floral motifs and play of flowing lines, as well as the more constructivist tendencies of its 1900 style, is well exhibited in the museum. The collections from the '70s and '80s highlight Belgian designers along with Italian design groups like Alchimia (Design Studio, 1979) and Ettore Sottsass's Memphis, which shifted furniture design away from its purely functional role to create sculptural furniture in bright, cheerful colors and with amusing decorative elements. In addition, the museum possesses a comprehensive collection of furniture, glass, and ceramics by Italian designer Alessandro Mendini and Ettore Sottsass. While the museum excels on the strength of its permanent collections, it plays host to important thematic exhibitions in order to emphasize specific design issues (Ghent Design Museum, 2005). When I visited the Ghent I was astonished by the eighteenth century façade facing the inner courtyard. Behind it stood a light and airy modern building. One brilliant invention was a

29 huge hydraulic lift in the central section of the building that made the floors adaptable. I found many possibilities for the involvement of visitors in this exciting and unique play of changing levels. The Ghent attempts to fulfill three basic functions: acquisition and conservation, scholarship, and education (Ghent Design Museum, 2005). The education department is the museum’s connection to the public, a translation service linking the scholar, historian, or artist on the one hand and children, schools, students, and the wider adult public on the other. Education programs involve activities intended to narrow the gap between the public and the museum. The Ghent boasts a variety of exhibition programs with an emphasis on twentieth century design. The themes vary from Art Nouveau to contemporary design, thereby expressing the modern and democratic culture of the country, and conveying the practical and social attitude that Belgians prefer design that is functional and affordable for everyone. The Wolfsonian Design Museum in Miami, Florida According to Margolin (2002), the Wolfsonian Museum was founded in 1986 to exhibit, document, and preserve the Mitchell Wolfson Jr. collection, an assemblage of over 80,000 objects. The collection contains artifacts primarily of North American and European origin, dating from 1885 to 1945 and comprises a variety of media: furniture; industrial design objects; glass, ceramics, and metalwork; rare books; periodicals; ephemera; works on paper; paintings; textiles; and medallic art. The nations most comprehensively represented at the Wolfsonian are the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Russia. The objects are interpreted to explore key issues in design history—the way design has both altered and been altered by cultural change, industrial innovation, and strategies of persuasion. According to Margolin (2002), the Wolfsonian also contains an extraordinary collection of twentieth-century German, Italian, British, Dutch, and United States political propaganda, including prints, posters, drawings, books, and serial holdings, as well as objects that document the rise and demise of these nations’ fascist movements. Graphic arts from Russia, middle Europe, and Spain provide important and unusual documentation for the history of propaganda in the twentieth century. Taken together, these collections can contribute to innovative comparisons of shared imagery among countries with very different political systems. Further, the museum holds an enormous collection of designs produced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Federal Art Project of the United States. The museum’s holdings are considered to be

30 unusual for the vast quantity and the exceptionally good quality of the objects (Margolin, 2002). The range of media is broad—sculpture, paintings, ceramics, lithographs, etchings, and posters— with special strength demonstrated in such areas as drawings and studies for post office murals. As such, the museum represents a rich resource for scholars interested in design, material culture, and the aesthetic and social movements of Europe and North America. The mission of the Wolfsonian as a museum and research center is reflected in its multidisciplinary approach to looking at objects as both agents and expressions of change (Margolin, 2002). It does so through exhibitions, publications, educational programs, and individual scholarship. While the Wolfsonian seeks to display art objects to convey a sense of the context in which they were created, the museum also acknowledges that such objects can “illuminate as much about our times as they reveal about their own” (Margolin, 2002, p. 103). The following mission statement describes the purpose of the Wolfsonian at Florida International University: The Wolfsonian uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, political, and technological changes that have transformed our world. It encourages people to see the world in new ways, and to learn from the past as they shape the present and influence the future. (http://www.wolfsonian.fiu.edu/visitus/history/index.html) Above all, the Wolfsonian museum endeavors to help people to see the world in new ways. Its collection of objects from the Modern era (1885-1945) commemorates the industrial age, and points to the ways in which design shapes and reflects human experience. The Wolfsonian also makes available to the public an extensive array of academic and public programs designed to reach a broad and varied audience. Its exhibitions and activities have been developed in such a way as to provide the public with opportunities to identify and contemplate the historical significance of collection themes and their relevance to the world today. One of the Wolfsonian’s significant strengths is its ability to use the collection to develop educational tools and curricula for local and national dissemination (Margolin, 2002). The Wolfsonian demonstrates a strong ongoing commitment to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth-largest school system in the United States. The multidisciplinary program, A Page at a Time involves educators in the fields of literature, visual arts, and social studies who use the museum’s collection and staff resources to teach visual literacy to schoolchildren from demographically diverse schools. After becoming familiar with objects from the museum’s

31 collection—especially its library materials—students explore such themes as conflict and intolerance in their own artwork and writing projects. One example is the Artful Truth-Healthy Propaganda Arts Project, was organized and developed by the Wolfsonian and supported by the State of Florida’s Department of Health, Division of Health Awareness and Tobacco. This innovative educational initiative teaches fourth grade through sixth grade students how to recognize and interpret persuasive messages conveyed by art, design, and advertising, using tobacco marketing as a case study. The Artful Truth-Healthy Propaganda Arts Project provides educators with the tools and training needed to teach visual literacy in the classroom, where students are learning to develop the critical thinking skills that will make them more sophisticated and discerning citizens. After the Wolfsonian staff developed this trend-setting curriculum over a 3-year period, they created a web site (http://www.artfultruth.org) from which teachers and students could access materials from anywhere in the world. Their unique resources will ultimately help to create a more aware future for the students exposed to them (Margolin, 2002). Die Neue Sammlung, Design in der Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany With around 70,000 objects in its collections of industrial design, graphic design, and the arts and crafts, the Neue Sammlung is today one of the world's leading museums of twentieth century applied art, and indeed the largest museum of industrial design (Die Neue Sammlung, 2005). The idea of and initiative behind the founding of the museum are closely connected to the Werkbund movement, which began in Munich in 1907. In addition, around 1912, a "modern collection of prime examples" of about 2,000 objects was assembled by the "Münchner Bund," an off-shoot of the Werkbund that formed the basis of the museum's collection at that time (Die Neue Sammlung, 2005). With the indispensability of industrial production methods in mind, the museum's emphasis from the very outset was on acquiring modern everyday objects with an exemplary design. This marked a conscious break with the practice followed by most arts and crafts museums of the day. Today's collections look to the present, seek an international reach, and insist on trailblazing design quality. Accordingly, the collection's focus for the purchase of objects for its 23 different areas of interest is international and stretches from around 1900 through the present day. Moreover, particular attention has been paid to forward-looking pioneers of nineteenth century modern design (Die Neue Sammlung, 2005).

32 The Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany The inception of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, dates back to the early 1980s (Vitra Design Museum, 2005). With the aim of documenting the history of the Vitra company, Vitra CEO Rolf Fehlbaum began collecting the furniture of designers who had influenced the company's development, such as Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Alvar Aalto, and Jean Prouvé. As the collection grew, so did the desire for an architectural venue in which the objects could be displayed. Back in 1986, Fehlbaum developed the concept for a design museum and in 1987 contacted Frank O. Gehry as the architect for the planned museum building. That same year, Fehlbaum met the later director of the museum, Alexander von Vegesack, through Ray Eames. Together Fehlbaum and von Vegesack developed the idea of a publicly operating museum from the original idea of a closed private collection (Vitra Design Museum, 2005). The Vitra Design Museum opened on November 3, 1989, and pictures of Frank O. Gehry's unconventional building—his first work in Europe—circled the globe (Vitra Design Museum, 2005). Today, the Vitra Design Museum is internationally active as a cultural institution that contributes to the research and popular dissemination of design. The Museum presents a broad spectrum of topics on design and culture, with a special emphasis on furniture and interior design. Its activities include the production of exhibitions, workshops, publications, and museum products, and the maintenance of an extensive collection, an archive, and a research library. In regard to its independence and range of topics, the Vitra Design Museum is comparable to a public museum. From a financial standpoint, however, it is largely self-sufficient. Its partnership with the Vitra Corporation consists of a basic annual supplement to the Museum budget, the use of Vitra architecture, and organizational co-operation (Vitra Design Museum, 2005). The Vitra Design Museum maintains one of the largest collections of modern furniture design in the world, with objects representing all of the major eras and stylistic periods from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present. Special areas of the collection include early industrial bentwood furniture, turn-of-the-century designs by Viennese architects, Gerrit Rietveld's experiments, tubular steel furniture from the 1920s and 1930s, key objects of Scandinavian design from 1930 to 1960, Italian design, and contemporary developments. A

33 further area of special interest is American design, ranging from Shaker pieces to the postmodern seating of . The Museum Collection also holds several prominent estates, including those of Charles Eames, Verner Panton, Anton Lorenz, and Alexander Girard. The Collection is complemented by an extensive archive and research library (Vitra Design Museum, 2005). Barcelona Museu de les Arts Decoratives in Barcelona, Spain The Museu de les Arts Decoratives in Barcelona, Spain opened to the public in 1995. Between 1995 and 2000, the museum assembled the first design collection in Spain: a thousand objects of twentieth century Spanish design, most from the period 1933-1999 (Barcelona Museu de les Arts Decoratives, 2005). The museum’s curatorial team decides which objects are most significant in terms of Spanish design. They consider each item’s sociological, technological, historical, and aesthetic importance according to criteria established by the museum. In essence, each piece that is chosen for the Museu de les Arts Decoratives is an object that either has cultural value for the present and the future; comes from a household context; is designed by a Spanish designer or produced in Spain by a Spanish company; or is innovative in materials, techniques, form, or typology. The collection of the Museu also has an area devoted to objects from other countries (Barcelona Museu de les Arts Decoratives, 2005). These are items that are thought to have formal or technological importance for Spanish design. The design collection includes such varied objects as follows: furniture, lighting, household items, packaging, electric appliance, kitchen and cleaning equipment, tableware, bathroom accessories, communications equipment, writing and smoking devices, a series of motorcycles and so on. As of 2003, the industrial design collection owned 1300 items by 218 designers and manufactured by 200 companies. In sum, the Museu constitutes a permanent collection representative of Spanish design and functions as a point of reference for designers, companies, historians and the general public. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is the only national and most comprehensive museum in the United States dedicated solely contemporary design and design history (Wikipedia, 2006). Founded in 1897, the Cooper-Hewitt has been part of the Smithsonian Institution since 1967. Housed in the historic Andrew Carnegie Mansion on Fifth Avenue, across from Central Park, in New York City, it includes the Barbara Riley Levin Conservatory and the

34 magnificent Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden. Instrumental in creating the Cooper-Hewitt were the Hewitt sisters, who had traveled abroad to the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Their experiences cultivated in the Hewitt sisters the opinion that European accomplishments could provide the foundations on which our own tradition could grow. With the two European institutions they had visited in mind, the sisters set out to create a visual library of design for the United States. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, their new museum concentrated on assembling examples of the major European styles of decoration from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. The Renaissance and Gothic styles were appreciated and documented, both in their original and revival forms, but the favored and most eagerly collected styles were the Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical, along with the exotic expressions of chinoiserie. In the 1940s and 1950s, the museum’s understanding of design broadened. European and American Modernist thinking had matured, and design was being reexamined from every angle (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2005). The purpose of design was debated, its practices were reconsidered, and design education was overhauled. Design became a profession, and its practitioners, professionals. Accordingly, the museum set out to build a collection of contemporary design. The staff of the museum thought about the objects in its collections differently and exhibited them in a new way. The 1995 exhibition Elements of Design was a demonstration of the museum’s updated outlook (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2005). Ninety-six objects from the collection were arranged in five groups, each group representing a key visual element of design color, surface, line rhythm, and form. This approach highlighted features that contribute to the overall appearance of an object, and it also brought to the fore aesthetic considerations that had been important to the designer. The history of the object, its place of manufacture, its function, and its style all receded into the background as the spotlight moved to the formal language of design (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2005). While interviewing Paul Thompson, a director of the Cooper Hewitt, Heller (2002) noted that Thompson's choices seemed to focus more on trendy style subjects of twentieth century style than substantive inquiries into the world of decorative arts. According to Thompson, his purpose was “to fill in the gaps and move forward” (Heller, 2002, p. 12). He mentioned that the Hewitt sisters were not in love with their own era, so their holdings in Art Nouveau and turn-

35 of-the-century applied art and furniture needed strengthening. In recent times, the Cooper-Hewitt has embarked on an exploration of the design process in an effort to understand the transformation of ideas and materials, the role of the designer as decision-maker, and the solutions and possibilities inherent in designing objects or the environment. As the National Museum of Design, the Cooper-Hewitt’s role has expanded greatly (Heller, 2002). The future of the environment, the quality of life, and the way in which design affects everyday living are issues of universal concern, and the museum recognizes its responsibility as an advocate in the design process. This is clearly manifested in the Copper- Hewitt’s exhibition program, with its National Design Triennial, which looks to breaking developments and future horizons across the fields of design practice, form architecture, and interiors to product design, graphic design, and fashion. The Cooper-Hewitt’s collections are a vital resource for students, designers, and scholars, and the museum has become a lively forum through which the general public can engage in a dialogue on design. The Museum’s collection, international in scope, is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Collecting activities are defined by four curatorial departments; industrial design and applied arts, textiles, wall coverings, and drawings and prints; which also embrace the fields of graphic design, architecture, interior design, , and urban planning. Since the fall of 1997, much of the collection has been housed in the Museum’s new Design Resource Center (Heller, 2002). Visitors can enter the Resource Center by appointment from the Museum through the Agnes Bourne Bridge Gallery and the Enid Wien Morse Garden Room. The Design Resource Center provides accessible study/storage areas for the collections. Whether in the galleries or by appointment for private study, the collections of the National Design Museum are available to everyone. The type of exhibitions offered by the Cooper-Hewitt are rarely presented in museums since they fall between categories of classic modernist design—like those presented by MoMA—and the annual exhibitions of contemporary work displayed by design associations and art director clubs. Through an active program of exhibitions and publications, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum presents perspectives on the social, environmental, and economic impact of design by exploring important objects that are both rare and beautiful as well as familiar and commonplace (Heller, 2002).

36 Summary The review of literature discussed that design museums are important arenas or tools for the formation of social identities. Further, the case was made for design museums as distinct from other forms of museums, particularly art museums. The evidence presented has shown how design and design museums had quite distinct processes of conception from other art forms and art museums; were the products of different social constituencies; had their own criteria for and patterns of acquisitions of objects; deployed the space and objects within the museum in certain ways; and had their own patterns of interaction with their visitors. In any event, design museums are museums that encompass product, graphic, fashion and architectural design (State Museum of Applied Arts Munich, 2004). Their goal is to do exhibitions that expand the design community’s own knowledge and understanding of itself and that also speak to the general public about the role and value of design in their lives (State Museum of Applied Arts Munich, 2004). Their exhibits explore historical and contemporary topics in design in ways that relate to daily life. They aim to demonstrate how design and the built environment impact on the social, cultural, historical, aesthetical, and economic well-being of society. They honor and lend recognition to past achievement within the scope of design. They serve as an educational resource for design students and professionals and the community at large. Studies (Wright, 1989) based largely on international design museums have stressed the modernity, efficiency and progressiveness of the museums. Design museums have become part of a new mode of museums that generate culture. They are significant for social, political, and commercial leaders who make decisions that affect what does and does not get designed. In this review of the museums described above, it was found that not every developed country has a design museum. Neither the Netherlands nor Italy has a museum devoted specifically to design (State Museum of Applied Arts Munich, 2004). Nor does Korea, which is my homeland, have a design museum. For this reason I would like my research to contribute to conceptual foundations necessary for the creation of a design museum in Korea. The literature suggests that design museums look forward and embrace stylistic trends and currents. They create bridges between past, present, and the epochs to come. Design museums are intellectually, socially, and aesthetically important as invaluable resources for examining and appreciating other cultures, other worlds, and other times, including the future.

37 Design museums help to engender an appreciation of ordinary objects and enhance our understanding of how objects and mass-produced images have been used to effect social, political, and technological change. After examining these objects, visitors can come away with a heightened sensitivity to these relationships in contemporary society. In this way, design museums help us to face the ever-changing social and cultural elements in the everyday world. In the next chapter I describe the methodology that I used to investigate the research questions for this study. I put some pictures of design museums for showing examples.

Figure 1. Museums Quartier Wien in Austria Figure 2. Museums Quartier Wien in Austria

Figure 3. The Pompidou Center in Paris Figure 4. The Pompidou Center in Paris

38 Figure 5. The Pompidou Center in Paris Figure 6. The Pompidou Center in Paris

Figure 7. The Palais de Tokyo in Paris Figure 8. The Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Figure 9. MOMA in New York City Figure 10. MOMA in New York City

39

Figure 11. The Wolfsonian Design Museum in Figure 12. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Miami Museum in New York City

40 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

Introduction My interest in design and design museums inspired this project, the ultimate purpose of which is to contribute understanding toward the creation of new design museums, and to add to the knowledge base in art education and arts administration. The methodological approach to this study is qualitative and uses grounded theory. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City served as the location for the collection of on-site data. The research question posed at the start of this study was: What are the best practices of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museums as seen by selected stakeholders in relation to its: (a) organizational structure, (b) collection strategies, (c) the function of physical space, (d) public support and collaboration, and (e) display techniques? Through document analysis, observation, and interview, such best practices were identified, and a theory about the relationships between a museum's organizational structure, collection strategies, functions of physical space, and public support and collaboration was generated. Theoretical Framework This study is qualitative in nature and grounded in phenomenological theory. According to Bogdan and Bilken (1992), “Phenomenology is committed to understanding social phenomena from the actor’s own perspective. The phenomenological perspective is central to a qualitative methodology. What qualitative methodologists study, how they study it, and how they interpret it all depend upon their theoretical perspective” (p. 99). The phenomenologist, then, views human behavior—what people say and do—as products of how they define their worlds. Because this inquiry centered on the phenomenon of design museums, its focus was how the design museum is experienced by its staff. The reality that the study sought to describe, then, is primarily that of the design museum staff; the aim is to explain the phenomenon satisfactorily using case-based inquiry. Phenomenologists generally assume some commonality in the perceptions of similar experiences held by human beings (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2003), and they seek to identify, understand, and describe such commonalities. This commonality of perception is referred to as the essence—the essential characteristics—of an experience. In this study I sought to identify the essential structure of the phenomenon of the design museum by studying multiple perceptions of

41 the phenomenon as experienced by design museum staff, and then trying to determine what was common in the perceptions of these different individuals. My goal in this effort was to establish the essence or defining characteristics of a design museum. The Development of Grounded Theory The analytic practices used in this study draw heavily upon methods for developing grounded theory, an approach developed by sociologists to analyze qualitative data. The main purpose of the grounded theory approach is to generate a theory from qualitative data that has been gathered and analyzed systematically in the course of a research process (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). In the grounded theory approach, the researcher's initial inquiries are quite broad, gradually becoming narrower as the study progresses (Gussak, 2001). Theory derived from such a process is thought to be more likely to resemble “reality” (Gussak, 2001, p. 12) than that derived from the putting together of a series of concepts based on one's own experience or through speculation alone (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Grounded theories, because they are drawn from qualitative data, are likely to offer insight, enhance understanding, and provide a meaningful guide to action (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Grounded theory was originally developed by sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (Glaser, 1978, 1992; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss, 1987). Strauss’s thinking was inspired by social scientists like Park (1967), Thomas (1966), Dewey (1992), Meade (1934), Hughes (1971), and Blumer (1969). In order to develop grounded theory, it is essential to get out into the field to discover what is really going on. Further, the following dispositions underlie the successful development of grounded theory: (a) a belief in the complexity and variability of phenomena and of human action; (b) a view of persons as actors who take an active role in responding to problematic situations; (c) the realization that persons act on the basis of meaning; (d) the understanding that meaning is defined and redefined through interaction; (e) a sensitivity to the evolving and unfolding nature of events (process); and (f) an awareness of the interrelationships among conditions (structure), action (process), and consequences (Patton, 2002; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). As Hoshmand (1989) noted, qualitative research strategies are particularly appropriate for addressing the personal meanings and perspectives of participants. In addition, she suggested that naturalistic methods offer the researcher access to deep structural processes. My intention in this study was to conduct qualitative research with grounded theory as a conceptual framework.

42 The use of an established approach to grounded theory created a more systematic process and accurate generation of concepts. Because the language and feel of a research study must at the same time be scientific and objective and address topics sensitively, a grounded theory was a useful approach (Creswell, 1998). The intent of grounded theory is to generate or discover a theory, an abstract analytical schema of a phenomenon, that relates to a particular situation (Creswell, 1998; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). One goal of this research was to generate a theory related to the interaction and relationships between individuals and processes in a design museum. In order to accomplish this purpose, I collected interview data, made multiple visits to the field, developed and interrelated categories of information, wrote theoretical propositions or hypotheses, and presented my conclusions. Strauss and Corbin (1998) have emphasized that analysis is the interplay between researchers and data, so what grounded theory offers as a framework is a set of “coding procedures” (p. 13) that “help provide some standardization and rigor” to the analytical process. This framework seemed well suited to my research aims. Field Site As an exemplar of a design museum, I chose the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City. Located in a metropolitan setting, and representing a national-, premier U.S. museum devoted solely to design, the Cooper-Hewitt qualifies as a representative case also because it is accessible and has an excellent reputation. In addition, the Cooper- Hewitt's curatorial director agreed to help me gain access to the museum for observation and interviews with its staff. The Cooper-Hewitt is part of the Smithsonian Institution and is located in New York City at Fifth Avenue and Ninety First Street, along what is known as Museum Mile (Margolin, 2002). Founded in 1897 by Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt, the granddaughters of industrialist Peter Cooper, and daughters of Abram S. Hewitt, mayor of New York in 1887-88, the museum was initially part of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. The main museum building was formerly the city mansion of the American steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who lived there until his death in 1919; the neighborhood in which the museum is located became known as Carnegie Hill. The Carnegie Corporation gave the house and to the Smithsonian in 1972, and the modern incarnation of the museum opened there in 1976. The museum contains more than 250,000 objects ranging from the time of

43 the Han Dynasty in China to the present, all of which are organized into four curatorial departments: Applied Arts and Industrial Design, Drawings and Prints, Textiles, and Wallcoverings. The museum also contains a research library containing 60,000 volumes. Research Design Because the purpose of this study was to understand the policies and practices of a design museum through the eyes of significant stakeholders and to generate concepts for the ways in which these are structured, a grounded theory approach to the collection and analysis of the data was used (Strauss, 1990). Three methods of data collection were employed: document analysis, observation, and interview (Anderson, 2000; Eisner, 1998; Seidman, 1998). I visited the Cooper-Hewitt in New York City, from March 2006 to July 2006 and stayed in New York City while I researched the organization. I interviewed the Cooper-Hewitt staff and observed the organization as a social space. I obtained impressions of the physical space and observed daily operations and interactions at the museum, all the while searching for patterns and categories of phenomena (Eisner, 1998). During my visits, the museum provided me with an identification card and a table where I could conduct library research, enabling me to access the organization freely and work at my discretion to find relevant resources from the library. The Cooper-Hewitt librarian helped me to find the appropriate staff members for the particular resources I sought. As themes emerged and further illuminated the research questions, other relevant staff members in other divisions also were identified by recommendations from the initial interviewees. A total of sixteen persons were interviewed and asked to respond to interview questions (see Appendix A) that were based on the research questions. Overall, data collection involved three strategies: interviews, observation of facilities, and document analysis. Such onsite methods for finding answers to the research questions were employed for approximately three months, from June 9 to August 29, 2006. A qualitative approach to my research questions was appropriate for generating a theory of the structures and policies of a design museum (Creswell, 1994; Strauss, 1990). My supporting questions emerged from the literature review and may be considered as pre-figured foci (Eisner, 1998). While in the field, I stayed alert to other themes that arose during the course of the study; these were considered emergent foci (Eisner, 1998). The coding procedure was thoroughly discussed and systematic, as I utilized open, axial, and selected coding (Strauss,

44 1990) as will be discussed later. Finally, I developed theoretical concepts using the coding system I created. Data Collection Beginning in 2003, I traveled to Belgium, Germany, France, and Britain to visit design museums and collected data that would serve as reference points for this study. I began the process of data collection by working with the Florida State University library consultant, Gloria McCorvin, in the fall of 2004. As part of her assistance, she contacted the Smithsonian Institution and retrieved the Cooper-Hewitt’s collections policy, which is inaccessible to the public. This was the beginning: the review of salient literature. The data for this study was collected primarily through a literature review, one-on-one interviews, on-site observation, and the analysis of documents from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The documents included the Cooper-Hewitt's mission statement, by-laws, strategic plan, budget, personnel policies, collection policies, public program policies, multicultural statement, staffing, marketing plan, floor plan, development plan, and code of professional museum conduct. Data collection tools included fieldnotes, transcriptions, dialogue, my own sensibility, visual images produced by a video camera, tape recordings and transcription of interviews and other salient information (Creswell, 1994). Once the data were collected, I formed a system for categorization of information and then reassembled the data by systematically relating the categories through critical coding. According to Strauss and Corbin (1998), the researcher typically conducts 20-30 site visits in “the field” (p. 45) in order to collect enough interview data to "saturate" the categories. A category represents a unit of information composed of events, happenings, and instances (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The researcher also collects and analyzes observations and documents, but these data forms are atypical. Prior to my on-site visits to the Cooper-Hewitt, I created a data analysis form (Appendix B) and memo form (Appendix C) that I used in collecting and writing about my observations. This helped me to organize my files and later analyze the data. While collecting data, I simultaneously began my analysis. In fact, data collection was a “zigzag” process (Creswell, 1998, p. 56). I would go in to the field to gather information, out to analyze the data, then back in to the field to gather more information, analyze the data, and so forth (Creswell, 1998). In gathering data, I used interviews as the primary research tool as per Seidman (1998),

45 who argued that one of the best and most direct ways of understanding how an organization is run is by asking those who represent it. As a secondary tool and to ensure coherency I conducted field observations of the daily work of the exhibitions department. I followed the department head and other staff members around for three days in order to get a sense of their everyday duties in their respective positions. As I did so, I noted what seemed to be emerging patterns and themes arising from the evidence, frequently tying them to design education theory and practice (Eisner, 1991). Interviewing Anderson’s (2000) Real Lives: Art Teachers and the Cultures of School provides an example of the use of primary field research methods for the study of art education and arts administration. In describing his efforts to interview and observe his subjects, he explained that he made use of his own intelligence, sensitivity, perception, and storytelling ability in gathering and reporting data. Prior to undertaking my own study, I learned his strategies in order to apply them to my research. As a result, when collecting data I attempted, to the best of my ability, to reconstruct and attune my own sensitivities to the interviewee’s unique meanings and select themes appropriate to the situations presented and develop themes. Interviewing is a powerful way to gain insight into design museum issues through a deeper understanding of the experiences of individuals whose lives are closely bound to the design museum (Seidman, 1998). At the root of in-depth interviewing is an interest in understanding the experience of the person and the meaning that he or she makes of that experience. The use of interviews enabled me to clarify and confirm the characteristics of the design museum related to policies and procedures through the eyes of primary stakeholders. In addition, through the interviews I was able to gain additional information on the organizational structure, collection strategies, and function of the physical space of the museum, as well as on public support and collaboration, clarifying concepts and issues rising from the review of salient documents. The study's conceptual framework and guiding research questions - formulated through a review of related literature - helped me identify the key persons to be interviewed and important documents to be reviewed. Thus, prior to beginning my field research, I sent an email to the head of the curatorial department of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum requesting official approval of the research in advance of a site visit to the museum. Over the course of three

46 subsequent visits, I interviewed sixteen staff members. Prior to these interviews, I obtained their signatures on informed consent forms approved by the Florida State University Human Subjects Committee. The interviews with major museum staff were the main source of data for this study. The interviewees were: Bonnie (Curatorial Director), Erin (Curator of Contemporary Art), Amy (Collections Manager), Clara (Registrar), Debora (Membership Manager), Christine (Director of Education Department), Melissa (Education Department), Nancy (Deputy Director of the Education Department), Jane (Curator in the Product Design Department), Kyle (Head of Publications), Elaine (Librarian), Lauren (Press Office/ Public Information), John (Copyright), Lorie (Human Resources), Mary (Registrar), Tiffany (Personal Assistant to the Director). All the names are pseudonyms. Their names have been altered to protect the anonymity of the participants. The purpose of interviewing was to gather information on themes related to the role and function of the design museum as perceived by stakeholders. The interview protocol was comprised of a set of fourteen questions that I asked each of the participants in my study (See Appendix A). Thus, the interviews may be considered formal interviews, also known as standardized open-ended interviews (Merriam, 1998; Rossman & Rallis, 2003). I conducted one interview per participant plus a follow-up, if necessary. In addition, I conducted opportunistic interviews as appropriate (Seidman, 1998). My goal for the interviews was to elicit answers that pertained to my research questions. The following is the list of questions that I asked each participant: 1. What are your educational background, position, and number of years in this job? 2. Please describe, from your point of view, the nature, purposes, and functions of a design museum. (From your point of view, how does it serve society?) 3. Please describe your job. Are there other aspects to what you do that should be included in your job description but aren't? Is there anything you do that should be done by someone else? (Ideally, should your job be different than it is?) 4. What is a design museum’s mission in the community? 5. What are the administrative policies of your museum? 6. What do you think is the role of organizational structure, collection/cataloging, display/exhibitions, preservation, education, and public support in achieving the mission of your museum?

47 7. What lines of communication are used in getting your work done? What’s the process? 8. What is the organizational structure of your museum? Who’s responsible for what? 9. What is your day-to-day practice? Can you give me an example of a recent project? 10. What’s the educational role of design museums? Can you give me examples? 11. What professional design standards do you adhere to? What should the standards be? Is there a gap between practice and the ideal? 12. What is the best thing about design museums? 13. What would you change about your job or about design museum practices in general, if you could? 14. Is there anything else you want to tell me? The participants interviewed were chosen—in theoretical sampling terms—to help me best form a conceptual foundation for a design museum that I hoped to help develop (Creswell, 1998). I conducted interviews with the design museum staff, curators, collection managers, registrars, and exhibition designers. These are individuals who participated in the process that was central to the development of the grounded theory that I developed (Strauss, 1990). In addition, they are individuals who have intimately experienced the phenomena of the design museum and who were able to articulate their conscious experiences (Strauss, 1990). Observation/Fieldnotes The goal of the fieldwork in this study in grounded theory is to generate a theory that grows out of or is directly relevant to design museum activities that occur in the setting under study. During my observations, I used an observational protocol (Appendix B) and memo (Appendix C) to record information that would aid in my understanding of the practices of the design museum. The sheet I used as a header made it possible to gather information about the observational session and included a “descriptive notes” section (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 78) where I could systematically record a description of activities and drawing of the physical setting. Moreover, I made reflective notes—notes about the process, reflections on activities, and summary conclusions about activities for later theme development (Creswell, 1998). How many trips into the field one makes depends on whether the categories of information become saturated and whether the theory is elaborated in all of its complexity (Strauss, 1990). I conducted enough observations and interviews that the categories were

48 saturated, that is, sufficient redundancy of data occurred and the theory was elaborated. The process in which I was engaged, taking information from a data collection process and comparing it to emerging categories, is called the "constant comparative" (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p.90) method of data collection and analysis. During my first visit to the museum, one of the education department staff, Melissa recommended that I participate in a program called the Summer Design Institute, which represents a concentrated effort of the education department. For one week every summer, educators and designers are invited to join an international roster of renowned designers and design educators as they share strategies for engaging K-12 students in the design process. The Summer Design Institute features workshops, master classes, studio visits, and keynote presentations that connect the school curriculum beyond the classroom. I took this opportunity immerse myself in the work of the Cooper-Hewitt and found that the Institute was a great opportunity for me to learn about how the museum approaches design education and its importance, and how the department helps audiences to understand the concept of design and apply it in practical ways. Data Analysis Once I collected the data, I searched each participant's statements for ideas that seemed especially relevant—those that appeared to be particularly meaningful to the participant in describing his or her experience in relation to the phenomenon of interest. I then clustered these statements into themes based on those aspects of the participants' experiences that they held in common. I then attempted to identify and describe the fundamental features of these themes. In summary, this phenomenological study represents a search for the essential structure of the phenomenon of the design museum by interviewing, in depth, a number of individuals who have experienced the phenomenon of the design museum. From these interviews, I extracted what I considered to be the most relevant and meaningful statements, and clustered these statements into themes. I then integrated these themes using the methods of grounded theory development. The collection and analysis of the data interrelated and occurred almost simultaneously. Themes that arose from the literature review were solidified. Using the grounded theory method, important topics were evaluated, selected, and categorized thematically (Anderson, 2000; Eisner, 1991). Schatzman and Strauss (1973), Glaser (1978), Charmaz (1988), and Strauss (1987) have subsequently elaborated the grounded theory approach, taking somewhat different tacks toward

49 the use of the core grounded theory procedures of coding and memoing to develop analytic categories from qualitative data. Grounded theorists give priority to developing rather than to verifying analytic propositions (Strauss, 1997). They maintain that if the researcher minimizes his or her commitment to received and preconceived theory, he or she is more likely to discover original theories in the data. By making frequent comparisons across the data, I developed, modified, and extended theoretical propositions that fit the data. At the actual working level, I began by coding data in close, systematic ways so that I could generate analytic categories. I further elaborated, extended, and integrated these categories by writing theoretical memos. According to Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw (1995), the grounded theory approach depicts analysis as a clearcut, almost autonomous activity. By discovering theory in fieldnotes and other qualitative data, I treated sets of already collected fieldnote data only as starting points; I assumed that such fieldnotes could be analyzed independently of the analytic processes and theoretical commitments of the ethnographer who wrote them. I insisted that data do not stand alone; rather analysis pervades all phases of the research enterprise—as I made observations, recorded them in fieldnotes, coded these notes in analytic categories, and finally developed explicit theoretical propositions. In this section, I developed an approach to analyzing fieldnotes based on these ideas. Strauss (1997) has suggested ways to begin the analysis of fieldnotes: close reading, open coding, and writing initial memos. Procedures helpful in carrying out more specific, fine-grained analyses included focused coding and writing integrative memos (see Appendix C). While I engaged in reading, coding, and memoing as discrete steps in an analytical process of obtaining fieldnotes, I should emphasize that I was not rigidly confined to one procedure at a time or in any particular order. Rather, I moved from a general reading to a close coding to writing intensive analyses and then back again (Strauss, 1997). Step One: Reading the Literature Review, Interviews, and Fieldnotes as a Data Set I began a concentrated analysis by reading my literature review, interviews, and fieldnotes in a new manner, looking closely and systematically at what had been observed and recorded. From that context, I treated my literature review, interviews, and fieldnotes as a data set: reviewing, reexperiencing, and reexamining everything that had been written down, while self-consciously seeking to identify themes, patterns, and variations within the record.

50 Step Two: Examining Fieldnotes Strauss (1997) identified the following sorts of questions as useful in beginning to examine specific fieldnotes:

z What are the staff members doing in the museum? What are they trying to accomplish?

z How, exactly, do they do this? What specific means and/or strategies do they use?

z How do staff members talk about, characterize, and understand what is going on?

z What assumptions are they making?

z What do I see going on here? What did I learn from these notes?

z Why did I include them? Such questions advanced several specific concerns linked to my approach to grounded theory and writing fieldnotes. These questions helped specify the meanings or points of view of those under study. Step Three: Categorizing Grouping concepts into categories is important because it enables the analyst to reduce the number of units with which he or she is working (Strauss, 1997). Categories are concepts, derived from data that stand for phenomena. I followed three steps of theory building: conceptualizing, defining categories, and developing categories in terms of their properties and dimensions, and then later related categories as statements of relationships. Conceptualizing is the process of grouping similar items according to some defined properties and giving the items a name that stands for that common link. When conceptualizing, one reduces large amounts of data to smaller, more manageable pieces of data. Once categories have been established, one can then go about specifying their properties (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Step Four: Open Coding Open coding is a means for developing interpretations or analytic themes rather than causal explanations (Strauss, 1997). I created codes by engaging in an analytic process, moving beyond the particular event or situation in the fieldnotes to capture some more general theoretical dimension or issue. I identified and developed concepts and analytic insights through close examination of and reflection on fieldnote data (Strauss, 1997). I categorized small segments of the fieldnote record by writing words and phrases that identified and named specific analytic dimensions and categories as suggested by the recorded observations.

51 Some of the codes I developed at this step were: organizational structure, collection strategies, function of physical space, public support and collaboration, display techniques, social & political; life skills; environment; social responsibility; critique; color; civic engagement; integration; breaking through boundaries; ethnographies; visual impact; ; construction; structure; form vs. function; consumer awareness; graphic design; marketing; exhibition; collection; management; membership management; financial management; budget; communication; ; assimilation; personal experience; and philanthropy. The following example is what I examined the open coding that illustrates the process: “We have a fairly complicated organizational structure, again organizational structure (os 1) largely due to the fact that we’re part of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian has a Board of Regents, which is similar to a board of trustees, the Secretary, and the Under-Secretary… There’s also an Office of General Counsel that has to approve many actions…Within Cooper-Hewitt itself, we have a board of trustees, a director, and then a curatorial director, to who the Registrar reports…” “For the most part, I work on the database. My work may be collection strategies (cs 1) data scrubbing, working on data standards, writing reports, creating records,…My work on acquisitions varies depending on the time of year. I spend a lot of time on them right before and after a collection committee meeting,…traveling exhibitions, so we are struggling with how best to utilize the database for this purpose…” “To the right is a gift shop where one can buy design objects function of physical space (fps 1) or professional design reference books that are rarely found in the general bookstores.” “So, our education department both brings people to the public support and collaboration museum, but also goes out to their community and brings designers and the designer’s work within the communities.” (psc 1) “It should harmonize with all the other elements of the display technique (dt1) exhibition; reflect the nature of the exhibition. So I work closely with those interns producing the checklist and exhibit labels in selecting the font style for the title. A series of graphic ideas are worked out on the computer. Once a selection has been made a transparency of the title can then be printed and projected on the wall in the gallery. This is very useful in determining size and location specifics. Then a mechanical of the finished title graphic is faxed to the sign company.” “The way the museum’s set up, there’s a director who organizational structure (os 2) provides the Board with the strategic overall mission and

52 vision for the museum, and there’s a layer of senior management who runs the museum’s day-to-day functioning. There is a director for external affairs who manages relations for the board of directors and major fundraising, a director for education, and a director of communication which is public relations, advertising, marketing, and the website. And then, under that we have a head of finance, accounting; a director of development and exhibition/education fundraising, PR people, the curators, a head of exhibitions, a head of conservation and a head of registrar. Under that level you have associate curators, collections, collections registrars, membership coordinators, etc.” “I also come up with the strategies for where the collections collection strategies (cs 2) are going in the future, and create a schedule for exhibitions that’s balanced. That is so we always have something historic and something contemporary somewhere at the same time in the building, so that every exhibition represents new scholarship, but also is appealing to the public…” “The admission desk is in the center of the main entrance, function of physical space (fps 2) and after purchasing an admission ticket, one enters to the left, following the guide’s directions. It is there that the entire exhibition area waits for visitors.” “The Cooper-Hewitt has already raised $13.5 million dollars public support and collaboration toward the campaign to further strengthen the museum’s overall educational program and mission, including a major (psc 2) gift from Target Stores.” “When the layout is complete the exact location of the works display technique (dt2) are recorded on the walls with pencils…Picture/2+59inches- hanging hook distance is the answer…The height of the work is divided by two and then 59 is added so that the works have the same center point and are at a good viewing distance.”

Step Five: Axial Coding The purpose of axial coding is to begin the process of reassembling data that were fractured during open coding (Strauss, 1997). In axial coding, categories are related to their subcategories to form more precise and complete explanations about phenomena. Axial coding requires that the analyst has some categories, though often a sense of how categories relate has already begun to emerge during open coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Following Strauss' (1997) procedure, I completed the following: (a) laid out the properties of a category and their dimensions, a task that begins during open coding, (b) identified the variety of conditions, actions/interactions, and consequences associated with a

53 phenomenon, (c) related a category to its subcategories through statements denoting how they are related to each other, and (d) looked for cues in the data that denoted how major categories might relate to each other. Step Six: Selective Coding Selective coding is the process of integrating and refining an emerging theory. The first step in integration is deciding on a central category (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The central category represents the main theme of the research. In order to facilitate the identification of the central category and the integration of concepts, I tried writing a storyline, making use of diagrams, and reviewing and sorting memos. Some of the codes that emerged at this step were: institutional and historical context, exhibition policy and management, collection policy and management, and educational policy and management. The following chart illustrates this process:

Organizational structure (os) Institutional and historical context

Display techniques (dt), Function of physical Exhibition policy and management space (fps)

Collection strategies (cs) Collection policy and management

Public support and collaboration (psc) Educational policy and management

Step Seven: Refining the Theory Once I outlined the overarching theoretical scheme, I refined the theory by reviewing the scheme for internal consistency and for gaps in logic, filling in poorly developed categories and trimming excess ones, and validating the scheme (Strauss, 1997). In order to validate my work, I asked respondents to read my scheme and then comment on how well it seemed to fit their cases. To clarify themes and concepts, Miles & Huberman (1994) have recommended visual displays. I used two methods for organizing my fieldnote data, a role-ordered display reflecting the tasks of different staff members in the museum (Table 2), and a time-ordered display, highlighting the tasks and stages involved in the creation of an exhibit (Table 3). A role-ordered matrix sorts data into rows and columns that have been gathered from or about a certain set of “role occupants” such that the data reflects their views of the phenomenon under study. I used both methods for displaying and analyzing data in this study. Examples of each are displayed and

54 developed more fully in the following chapter. Summary The primary research question posed in this study was: What are the best practices of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museums as seen by selected stakeholders in relation to its: (a) organizational structure, (b) collection strategies, (c) the function of physical space, (d) public support and collaboration, and (e) display techniques? This question drove my chosen methodology and research design. I utilized phenomenology and grounded theory both as a conceptual framework from which to approach the question (Glaser, 1992; Strauss & Corbin, 1997) and as an ethnographic tool guiding immersion, description, and interpretation (Anderson, 2000). I functioned as the primary research instrument, (Eisner, 1998) observing phenomena through immersion (Anderson, 2000), conducting in-depth interviews (Seidman, 1998), and generating a theory (Strauss, 1997). Finally, I maintained extensive fieldnotes (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995) and personal journals and photos (Tedlock, 2000) to aid in data analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994) and interpretation. Strauss (1988) has said that a combination of analytical sharpness, social awareness, and theoretical quickness enables a researcher to do an excellent dissertation. I kept that in mind throughout this study. The difference between just looking at an interview or fieldnote in search of general themes or patterns and what I call intensive coding involved careful scrutinizing of the literature review and a thorough search for words and phrasing that might suggest all kinds of possible worthwhile hypotheses. The process of open coding initiated a whole field of inquiry and opened up an array of questions, hypotheses, and possibilities. I diagramed the analysis to open up black boxes and sought connections that may be in the data (Strauss, 1998). To avoid becoming overwhelmed by mountains of data, I tried to create a balanced interplay between the gathering of data, interpretation, the gathering of more data, and more interpretation (Strauss, 1998).

55 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS

Introduction The primary research question posed in this study was: What are the best practices of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum as seen by selected stakeholders in relation to its: (a) organizational structure, (b) collection strategies, (c) function of physical space, (d) public support and collaboration, and (e) display techniques? This chapter seeks to answer this question, in part, by providing the results of the document analysis, observation, and interview conducted for this study, as well as an interpretive summary of these findings in relation to the purposes of the study. Unless otherwise noted information provided about the museum in this chapter comes from observation or interviews as noted. Through the intensive coding process described in chapter 3, the following codes, reflecting the primary roles of a design museum, emerged: institutional and historical context, exhibition policy and management, collection policy and management, educational policy and management. Accordingly, the sections in this chapter are categorized as follows: 1) Institutional and historical context, 2) Exhibition policy and management, 3) Collections policy and management, and 4) Educational policy and management. The first section provides the institutional context for the museum, including the way in which the Museum’s original foundations are reflected in its present-day operations, physical setting, and cultural/historical and political/administrative structure. The second section revolves around exhibition management, and provides an explanation of how all the exhibitions at the Cooper-Hewitt are managed. The third section provides findings related to the management of collections and the fourth section discusses the Museum’s educational policy and management. Institutional and Historical Context Document Analysis/Results Mission Statement The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum was founded by the Hewitt sisters in 1897 with the aim of providing students, artisans, and designers with examples of decorative arts and design that would educate and inspire (Rogers, 2006). An additional mission of the museum is to explore the impact of design (Rogers, 2006). The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is the

56 only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The Museum presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming. It is the mission of the Cooper-Hewitt’s staff and Board of Trustees to advance the public understanding of design across the twenty-four centuries of human creativity represented by the Museum’s collections (Rogers, 2006). The Cooper-Hewitt forms an important part of the Smithsonian Institute in New York City. Since the Smithsonian's founding in 1848, it has become the world’s largest and most visited museum and research complex (Rogers, 2006). Art, History, and Science are the three main divisions of the Smithsonian. Smithsonian Art is a unique national collection of museums, archives, and programs, including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (Rogers, 2006). Office of the Director The director of a museum provides conceptual leadership through specialized knowledge of the discipline of the museum and is responsible for policy-making and funding (with the governing board), planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and supervising and coordinating activities through the staff (Edson & Dean, 1996). The current director of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Paul Warwick Thompson, has led this organization since 2001. Thompson is seen by his employees as a great director who has established a new vision for the museum, one involving a greater balance between historic, scholarly exhibitions and those focused on contemporary international design. Before joining the Cooper-Hewitt, Thompson served as director of the Design Museum in London for eight years. He was born in Oxford, England in 1959 and holds a bachelor's of arts degree from the University of Bristol, as well as master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of East Anglia. Under his leadership, admission at the Cooper-Hewitt rose by 59 percent over five years and educational group visits increased by 35 percent over three years. Organizational Structure/ Administrative Policies A graphic description of the organizational structure of the Cooper-Hewitt (Figure 13) was provided by Tiffany, an assistant in the Director’s office.

57 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE (as of 3/1/06)

Director’s Office 50-05-1000

Finance/Administration/ Education Curatorial Communi- Develop- Operations Department Department Department cations ment Department Dept. 50-05-1100 50-05-1500 50-05-1300 50-05-1400 50-05-1200

Product Public Info. Fund- Design/ raising & Financial Decorative Division Management 50-05-1410 Special Arts Events Division Div. 50-05-1110 Division 50-05-1310 50-05-1210

Museum Shop & Drawings/ Admissions Branch Prints/Graphic Member- ship 50-05-1111 Design Div. 50-05-1320 Division 50-05-1220

Textiles Facilities Division Division 50-05-1120 50-05-1330 Registrar Division

Admin Services Wall Photo Svcs Div. Coverings 50-05-1370

50-05-1130 Division OIT 50-05-1340 HR Liaison Exhibitions Div. 50-05-1350

Conservation Division 50-05-1360

Figure 13. Organizational structure of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

58 Committees Five committees at the Cooper-Hewitt are authorized to perform particular actions. They are the board of trustees, collections committee, internal collections committee, exhibitions committee, and loans committee. Based on interviews and related pre-existing documents (collection policy documents), a description of the role of each of these entities is provided below. The Board of Trustees. The Cooper-Hewitt Board of Trustees is an external appointed body of up to thirty-two members who are available for advice and assistance as needed. The Secretary of the Smithsonian and the Under Secretary for Art serve as ex officio members. The Chairman and President serve on the Cooper-Hewitt Collections Committee. When purchases or gifts valued at more than $50,000 or deaccessions valued at more than $10,000 are being contemplated, the Chair of the Collections Committee reports the proposed change to the Board of Trustees for a recommendation before making a final decision (Rogers, 2006). The Collections Committee. The Collections Committee is composed of external members and meets quarterly to approve acquisitions and disposals. The Committee is composed of external members who are invited to join by the Director. The Chairman and President of the Board of Trustees serve on the Committee by virtue of their positions. The Chair of the Committee only exercises his or her vote when it is needed to resolve a tie vote. The Committee makes recommendations to the Director for approval. If a purchase of $50,000 or more is being contemplated, the Chair of the Collections Committee will report the transaction to the Board of Trustees for a recommendation before making a final decision. The Registrar attends the meetings as secretary, recording actions taken and tracking acquisitions funds. The curators and conservators attend the meetings, and the librarian and other staff or specialists may be invited to attend the meetings or be consulted from time to time. Final authority rests with the Director, but it is the responsibility of the Director to refer to the Under Secretary for Art any proposed transaction that merits additional review because of unusual circumstances (Rogers, 2006). The Internal Collections Committee. The Internal Collections Committee is an internal review committee that meets quarterly to vet new acquisitions before presentation to the Collections Committee. New acquisitions are discussed in the context of the approved list of most desired acquisitions. The committee also reviews purchases against the money available in acquisition funds. It determines the order in which objects will be presented to the Collections Committee and reviews justification statements (Rogers, 2006).

59 The Exhibitions Committee. The Exhibitions Committee is composed of Board members and external advisors. It ensures that all exhibitions are consistent with the museum’s mission and advises from the director on possible content, presentation, and programming. The heads of each curatorial department attend meetings. Other staff or specialists may be invited to attend as appropriate. The Exhibitions Committee makes recommendations to the Director, with whom final authority rests (Rogers, 2006). The Loans Committee. The Loans Committee is an internal committee that meets bi- monthly to approve outgoing loans of works owned by the museum. Voting members include a curator from each of the four curatorial departments, the Registrar, and the two conservators. The Loans Committee makes recommendations to the Director for approval, with whom final authority rests. The Deputy Curatorial Director acts as Chair of the Loans Committee and the Registrar records actions taken. Other staff or specialists may be consulted from time to time as well (Rogers, 2006). Strategic Plan A review of the Cooper-Hewitt's strategic plan (2006) reveals that the museum has continued to make progress on its efforts to enhance its permanent collections and develop dynamic programs that draw on its wide range of design objects. One of the most fundamental changes made in the interest of the strategic plan was an alteration in the opening hours of the museum. Whereas most other museums close every Monday or at least one day during the week, the Cooper-Hewitt is open seven days week. Since 2006, the regular hours of the Cooper-Hewitt are: 10 am - 5 pm on Mondays through Thursdays, 10 am - 9 pm on Fridays, 10 am - 6 pm on Saturdays, and noon - 6 pm on Sundays. An important part of the Cooper-Hewitt's strategic plan involves its plans for expansion. The announced $35-million expansion program will optimize exhibition space within the institution’s historic buildings and enhance education and public facilities. After a two-year planning process, the Cooper-Hewitt has embarked upon a program that will accommodate the museum’s expanding institutional goals. The master plan for the museum’s expansion affords an additional 8,000 square feet of gallery space, as well as the creation of an off-site storage facility equipped with state of the art conservation labs, a study room, and a photography studio that will facilitate the ongoing digitization of the collection. The second floor of the Carnegie Mansion will be entirely dedicated to exhibitions, and a dramatic new gallery will be created on the third

60 floor, increasing the museum’s allotted space for exhibitions from 10,000 to 18,000 square feet. Administrative offices and the National Design Library will be relocated to the Fox-Miller townhouses adjacent to the mansion, unifying resources for students enrolled in the Cooper- Hewitt’s Master’s program. The Cooper-Hewitt has already raised $13.5 million dollars toward the campaign to further strengthen the museum’s overall educational program and mission, including a major gift from Target Stores (The Cooper-Hewitt's strategic plan, 2006). The strategic plan is revised annually to reflect the present year’s goals and those of the future three years. Under the leadership of the Director, the priorities in the museum's plan for growth are the continued development of the collections, increased access to scholarly resources, and educational programming. In conjunction with the growth of the permanent collection and the exhibitions program, educational initiatives continue to be revitalized. I will describe details related to the role of each department in the next sections.

Observation Results

Figure 14. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Facade The museum building, the former home of Andrew Carnegie, is located on Fifth Avenue and Ninety-First Street, on what is known as Museum Mile. Just across from Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum, the museum's location provides many tourists with easy access. Two other famous museums, the Guggenheim and the National Academy of Design, are located just a block away. Thus, the museum is geographically located in an advantageous place. Big banners outside of the Cooper-Hewitt tell by passers what exhibition is currently installed, so car drivers and pedestrians alike might become interested. These banners are hung intentionally at same height as the eyes of those walking by rather than at the height of the wall

61 outside. Inside the building, all the facilities are well located so visitors can easily access them. The admission desk is in the center of the main entrance, and after purchasing an admission ticket, one enters to the left, following the guide’s directions. It is there that the entire exhibition area waits for visitors. The floor plans of the building can be found in Appendix F. To the right is a gift shop where one can buy design objects or professional design Figure 15. The Entrance Floor Plan reference books that are rarely found in the general bookstores. The gift shop is very big and the price arrangement of objects is wide. One can find many famous designer products there, such as Allessi’s transparent small homegoods, Yosimotto Nara’s ash tray, Murakami Dakasi’s limited soccerball, and others.

Figure 16. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Floor Plan The staff offices are connected to the exhibition area, but each is actually part of a different building. Many museums have their staff offices in annexes or different buildings.

62 However, rather than create a significant distance between the exhibition area and staff offices, a more optimal plan would be to place them closer to one another in order to give staff members a better sense of exhibitions and audiences. The library, located on the fourth floor, has a particularly large collection of books. All exhibition catalogues are saved in chronological order. Everything looks very organized. The reference librarian, Elaine, mentioned, “Without this adequate library such a collection could hardly exist. This library is the central ganglion of any serious collection of works of art. Without this library there can only be a collection of curiosities.” All the staff seemed very nice and cooperative. Whenever I needed information or data, each staff member seemed to be not only aware of their role in the museum, but also of that of the other staff members. They seemed to have a sense of duty and integrity that would lend itself to effective collaboration. Interview Highlights and Results The integrity of the Cooper-Hewitt's holdings is always a primary concern, and curators, archivists, registrars, and administrative personnel consider the interrelationships among holdings and integration of records to be very important. All departments are expected to cooperate in fulfilling the mission of the museum, most especially the curatorial, collections, exhibition, and the education departments. One of the participants, collections registrar Clara, noted in an interview: We have a fairly complicated organizational structure, again largely due to the fact that we’re part of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian has a Board of Regents, which is similar to a board of trustees, the Secretary, and the Under-Secretary for the Art Museums (in order of precedence). There’s also an Office of General Counsel that has to approve many actions…Within Cooper-Hewitt itself, we have a board of trustees, a director, then a curatorial director, to whom the Registrar reports. Cooper-Hewitt is fairly hierarchical— we generally do not interact directly with the Director, but instead feed information to him through the Curatorial Director. The Curatorial Director is part of senior staff, which includes the Deputy Director, the Director of Communications, and Director of Education. Per the organizational structure, collection/cataloging, display/exhibitions, preservation, education, and public support, the mission statement should be the governing principle of the museum, so it should inform all aspects of the museum, including the organizational

63 structure. Everyone should understand the mission and their role in fulfilling that role. Each department, while having its own role, should be part of the whole. Public support is obviously key, as it provides the popular and financial support necessary to keep the doors open. It’s important to serve the community, and defining what community is served by each exhibition/program/publication is important—it should be part of the collecting plan, for example (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). Clara stressed that each department has its own role in accomplishing the ultimate goal of the museum, which is to enhance public awareness of the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming. In addition to Clara, I interviewed the curatorial department director, Bonnie. When I asked, “Please describe, from your point of view, the nature, purposes, and functions of a design museum.” Bonnie responded: I think the nature of design museums is changing, as all museums are. As people are accessing the internet, and getting much more visual information than they used to get only from museums and magazines, I think the nature of design museums in the future is to show the public how design affects all stages of life historically by showing the very finest pieces and collecting them for future generations, and in contemporary life to recognize the most innovative designers, and what are the techniques, materials and forms of that have affected design’s process and styles historical. So it’s about process, people, and ideas (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). When I asked Bonnie about the mission of the design museum in the community. She responded: Our mission is to both to celebrate design and to educate our audience on what design is. All different forms that design can take…the idea is that when you get up in the morning, every decision you make is a design decision, what toothbrush you use, your choice of clothes and car, what furniture you live with, those are all design decisions. The concept is that we want people to start being more discriminating about the choices they make….not saying, okay, pick any chair, but, I want to pick a chair that I like, that works well but also has more my character than someone else’s. So in that way all design is identity (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I next asked Bonnie about the administrative policies of the museum and their

64 relationship to her work. She replied, The way the museum's set up, there’s a director who provides the Board with the strategic overall mission and vision for the museum, and there’s a layer of senior management who runs the museum's day-to-day functioning. I am the curatorial director; there is a director for external affairs who manages relations for the board of directors and major fundraising, a director for education, and a director of communication which is public relations, advertising, marketing, and the website. And then, under that we have a head of finance, accounting; a director of development and exhibition/education fundraising, PR people, the curators, a head of exhibitions, a head of conservation and a head Registrar. Under that level you have associate curators, collections registrars, membership coordinators, etc. Each curatorial department has assistants to help curators with administrative duties. So it is set up as a pyramid (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I sought more specificity in regard to the role of the organizational structure, collection/cataloging, display/exhibitions, preservation, education, and public support in achieving the mission of the museum. According to Bonnie, I think that they all have to fulfill the mission, and in museums, the curatorial department, collections, exhibition, and the education department are all the mission- driven departments. Then the other departments, whether it’s fundraising or publicity or finance, all support exhibitions, collections, and education programs. They are crucial, however, as without the money or the advertising we couldn’t do exhibitions, right? So the main departments that make museums are exhibitions, collections, education. But you need all of these other departments in order to enable to museum to work (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). Then, I interviewed the educational department director, Christine. When I asked her about the mission of a design museum in the community, Christine explained it is to inform people about design - not just in general, but in their own lives. She replied, Administratively, because we are from the Smithsonian, a lot of our policies are dictated by them, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The idea is that, you know, we’re the national museum, which means, not every one of our policies is debated by people who’re coming to our doors, but we try to reach people. I think the goal of the

65 Smithsonian is to reach as many people as possible (Christine, personal communication, July 17, 2006). Christine's perceptions of the role of organizational structure, collection/cataloging, display/exhibitions, preservation, education, and public support in achieving the mission of the Cooper-Hewitt. I asked her to talk about this, beginning with who is responsible for various tasks. She explained, I think all departments do different things to achieve that mission. I think in the education department what we try to do is not only educate people, but also let people know about what is not in an exhibit. Our goal is to educate people about design in general. To achieve that goal, we work on the website as well…It’s pretty clear that we have a director of the museum, and then there are senior managers, curatorial director, communication director, education director, development director. They work directly with their staff. We meet, of course, internally. There are staff meeting, higher staff meetings, and we all work with emails (Christine, personal communication, July 17, 2006). In the same way as Bonnie and Clara, Christine believes that the mission of a design museum is to help the audience learn to recognize what design is and why and how it is important in daily life. This seems to be the mission to which all the Cooper-Hewitt staff adhere and toward which they direct their intensive efforts. From these interviews, we can sense that they are all aware of design museum’s role which is to educate its audience on what design is, to show the public how design affects daily life currently and historically by showing design exhibitions and collecting them for next generations, to recognize the most innovative designers, and to reflect how design thinking has affected design process and styles for our lives. From the interviews I conducted, I learned that their each department has its own role in accomplishing the ultimate goal of the museum, which is to enhance public awareness of the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming.

66 Interpretive Summary In this section I will offer some interpretation and a summation of the findings on the institutional and historical contexts of the museum in relation to the purposes of the study. The exemplary practices of the museum in relation to its mission statement and organizational structure will be discussed. The scale of the design museum’s vision, to “serve the United States in a national role,” and “to explore the impact of design” are what makes the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum distinctive from other museums. Serving the nation and design are the unique, exemplary roles a national design museum can and should play, guiding every aspect of policy and practice of design museums. The key vision of the Cooper-Hewitt is clearly articulated in its mission statement, which tells us that the museum seeks to explore the impact of design on everyday life. It presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming. The Cooper-Hewitt has developed its mission statement and organizational structure based on the concept of serving the entire public. According to DiMaggio (1991), although public art museums in the United States were established under the democratic ideal that all people are entitled to a free education, the art museum has often been criticized as an elitist institution. He maintained that there are three types of publics noticeable in most museums: the first public is patrons-wealthy individuals and collectors strongly committed to visual arts whom the museum counts on for donations to capital and endowment campaigns and for gifts of art. The second public comprises many general visitors who are potential and actual members of the institution. This group is considered the market from which museum can generate revenue through memberships, museum shop sales, and admission. The third public consists of people who do not visit museums or who do so rarely, and is categorized as children, minorities, the elderly, or the poor. DiMaggio (1991) also argued that art museums, like other nonprofit institutions, have tried to serve these distinctive multiple audiences by developing the mission statement and organizational structures. The Cooper-Hewitt tries to encompass all public as many as possible with ultimately goals (serve and educate design to public) within the mission statement and organizational structure.

67 Located in New York City, a major center of commerce and culture in the U.S., the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is visited by about five million people each year. In addition to the visitors, the museum reaches distant audiences beyond its walls through educational services such as extension programs and its Internet Website. In all, the museum’s audience is extremely diverse, ranging from local to national to international in terms of geographic distance, and from pre-K through senior citizen in terms of age. In terms of its impact on individuals' careers, students are expected to benefit from its resources and aesthetic experience, professional designers are expected to use the new and established works displayed by the museum as a source of inspiration, companies and manufacturers are expected to benefit from the public exposure of their products, as well as obtain innovative strategies and ideas that lend themselves to branding products, creating innovation to boost competitiveness and enhancing the appreciation of other exhibitions in the design museum. Eventually this design museum affects to everyone who lives in contemporaneousness at the same time, reflecting them historically, socially, culturally. The organizational structure of the Cooper-Hewitt is well woven into the current structure. All committee members, including the board of trustees, executive officers, and professional staff at the museum are fully aware of devoted to, and proud of this expectation for the museum. According to Edson and Dean (1996), more complicated museum management structures typically include a cadre of workers; however, duties are divided along the same lines as any basic museum structure. There is a tendency for the operational structure of the organizations and institutions of a nation to reflect the prevailing tendencies of different social structures, concepts of business, and levels of development. Whatever the structure, the personnel should correspond to the needs of the museum and its stated mission. The role of the director should provide conceptual leadership through specialized knowledge of the discipline of the museum. The director is responsible for policy-making and funding (with the governing board), planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and supervising and coordinating activities through the staff. The current director, Paul Warwick Thompson, is seen by his employees as a great director who has established a new vision for the museum, one involving a greater balance between historic, scholarly exhibitions and those focused on contemporary international design. The integrity of the Cooper-Hewitt's holdings is a primary value, and curators, archivists,

68 registrars, and administrative personnel consider the interrelationships among holdings and integration of records to be very important. All departments are expected to cooperate in fulfilling the mission of the museum, most especially the curatorial, collections, exhibition, and the education departments. Fundraising, publicity, and finance departments all support exhibitions, collections, and education programs. Among the staff, there is recognition that all these functions are crucial. Based on the concept that the mission of a design museum is to help the audience learn to recognize what design is and why and how it is important in daily life, all the Cooper-Hewitt staff adhere to this goal, and put their intensive efforts toward it. Each department has its own role in accomplishing the ultimate goal of the museum, which is to enhance public awareness of the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming. Exhibitions Policy and Management According to Edson and Dean (1996), when people in western cultures first began to create organized exhibitions of art, the objective was to present or display objects as a sign of wealth, cultural achievement, or intellectual enlightenment. Around the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the purpose of exhibitions began to change. As museums became more dependent upon public funding, the attitudes of both curators and audiences shifted from an acceptance of social and academic elitism toward an expectation that public institutions ought to provide public service. Design, in particular, came to be seen as an important issue when providing spaces and places for people to do things, and especially when manipulating exhibits. With the development of an awareness of the importance of design came the realization that there needed to be people whose interests and expertise could provide design solutions. Over time, the role of the designer has evolved; now the exhibition designer's role is to ensure highly directed, refined, and executed learning environments. At the Cooper-Hewitt, the goal of the exhibition program is to remain consistent with the museum's mission, illuminating the diversity of historical periods and styles in design as well as a wide variety of design topics (Strategic Report 2006). In this section, then, I provide an explanation of how all the exhibitions at the Cooper- Hewitt are managed.

69 Document Analysis/Results Overall Exhibition Calendar Including Exhibition Policy and Standards In order for museums to prepare an exhibition accurately and successfully, they need a checklist outlining each of the stages of exhibition development. Exhibition development can be divided into four phases: a conceptual phase, a development phase, a functional phase, and an assessment phase (Edson & Dean, 1996). These phases and the steps within them may be organized in the form of an outline that makes specific activities and tasks more easily recognizable. By dividing into tasks the broader components in the exhibition’s development, the job becomes easier to plan Curatorial director of the Cooper-Hewitt, Bonnie, supplied me with the document below, a procedural exhibition policy and a checklist encompassing the phases in the development of an exhibition. (See Table 1). There were some abbreviations that I could not recognize so I asked her later and she kindly explained what they were. The calendar is well organized and arranged in such a way as to avoid any mistakes in the huge exhibition process. This document will be very helpful to other design museums or any museum that is newly established. Procedural Exhibition Policy Exhibition start-up and development. The Cooper-Hewitt's procedures call for the curator to hold a preliminary review of the content and purpose of the exhibition with the chief curator in order to discuss any exhibition proposal. A clearly articulated exhibition purpose— which can take many forms depending on the site, size, and context of the exhibition—includes the identification of the primary audiences(s), communication goals, educational objectives, and other means by which to assess the ultimate success of the exhibition. Careful identification of all these variables will greatly aid in the planning, development, implementation, and eventual evaluation of the exhibition’s effectiveness. The next procedure is to complete an internal exhibition proposal form, which, among other information, typically includes: a summary of the project’s purpose, content, and approach; the overall importance of the exhibition and how it relates to the mission, goals and objectives of the museum; a description of the proposed organization and major themes of the exhibition; the exhibition’s target audiences and how the exhibition will engage them; proposed related/complementary publications, educational and public programs; and a statement of work that details and assists in the management of the intended scope of the project.

70 Exhibition policies and standards. The following description illustrates the standards guiding the development of exhibitions: 1. All exhibitions should aim to inspire REFLECTION and LEARNING.

z Do not be afraid to touch upon subjects of deep human concern.

z Speak with confidence, courage, and clarity in areas of scholarly expertise.

z Inspire the visitor to draw generalizations from the particular.

z Assume a complex audience profile.

z Provide a range of learning tools for different learning styles and developmental levels.

z Make the process of learning – regardless of the level or style – a challenge, but an achievable one.

z Consider from the outset whether the exhibition medium is really the most suitable means to communicate the message and subject matter. 2. Exhibitions should engage EMOTION and INTELLECT

z Reflect an understanding of the range of meaning and emotions the topic may elicit in visitors.

z The exhibition venue is not just a series of walls on which to glue objects and hang text. It consists of three-dimensional spaces that can be made affective and used to enhance the total visitor experience on many levels. 3. Exhibitions should combine EXPLORATION with EXPOSITION

z The narratives should have a clear key message and a strong voice.

z Always distinguish between fact and opinion.

z A voice of authority, rooted in sound scholarship, can also be playful and amusing.

z The voice should be appropriate to the topic and target audience.

z Do not hesitate to include counter-voices, as they can help the visitor understand that ‘authority’ is open to challenge, scholarship is open to debate, that our understanding is a stage in a dialectic discourse.

z Strive to offer variety in presentation: a mixture of scholarly and stylistic approaches in different exhibitions within a museum, rather than a homogeneous assemblage of simplistic presentations. In this way, every visitor among our diverse audiences will consistently find exhibitions that are intellectually stimulating and

71 visually engaging within each museum, as well as across the Smithsonian. 4. Exhibitions should be MEMORABLE

z Strive to create focal points that have a memorable impact, providing a visual affirmation of a ‘big idea’, or a ‘big idea’ from a visual source.

z Exhibitions should engage and inspire our audiences.

z Engagement, education, and entertainment combine seamlessly in the best exhibitions.

z Creativity, flexibility and reasonable risk-taking should be encouraged. This detail and clear procedural exhibition policy and standards will be a good reference to establish an exhibition policy for a new design museum. With the clearly articulated exhibition purpose includes the identification of the primary audiences, communication goals, educational objectives will greatly help in the planning, developing, implementation, and eventual evaluation of the exhibition’s effectiveness. All exhibitions should aim to inspire reflection and learning, engage emotion and intellect, combine exploration and exposition, memorable. Table 1 Phases in the Development of an Actual Exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt 1. PRE-DESIGN PHASE (30 months or more before opening) Concept stage: Curator meets with Bonnie to discuss possible exhibition topic

Begins research on exhibition and developing exhibition thesis

Curator meets with BB and presents thesis and exhibition flow

Curator begins work on exhibition proposal and exhibition put on BB’s draft/working exhibition calendar

Exhibition Proposal completed – Fundraising begins

Guest interpreter (an international personality, designer, writer, artist) asked to curate an exhibition for our Collections Gallery adding a work of their own that reflects their choices of collection objects

Exhibition budget and schedule drafted

Guest interpreter visits collection for Collection Gallery exhibition

Start paperwork for any SI loans (Conservation etc.)

72 Table 1 Continued

Guest curator (a curator from outside who is invited to co-curate/organize a show at our museum) & guest interpreter contact signed

Guest interpreter visits collection and IDs 12 objects

Book essayists contracts signed

Begin contracting process with exhibition designers

Graduate student assigned to exhibition

Begin sending loan forms to borrow objects for exhibition

Preliminary objects information entered into TMS includes accurate dimensions, material, images, and any display issues (to be framed; framed; Audio Visual; Electric; to be matted; matted, etc.)

Sign contract with exhibition designer and

90% checklist and object image book ready Curator and education dept. plan related programming

Book designer contract signed

Objects photographed for book SCHEMATIC DESIGN PHASE (16 months – 12 months before opening) Planning stage: Schematic Design starts (includes first test fit). First team meeting with BB, DD, JG, graphic designer, registrar, conservation, lighting designer, exhibition designer. Thereafter team meeting every 2-3 weeks as needed

Submission of SD (Designers initial design) to NDM (National Design Museum), 35% called the SD410 submission to JS (a person who works in the Cooper-Hewitt) Results of 35% SD410

Exhibition graphic identity completed

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT & BOOK PUBLICATION PHASE (13 months -5 months before opening) Operational stage: Design Development meeting including JSlivko

Invite Janice (just a person who works here on exhibitions and issues such as

73 Table 1 Continued liability, handicapped access etc)

100% loan forms sent out, earliest received back from lenders

Conservation begun as necessary

Press Package and Images completed All book texts & images submitted to book designer

BB presents initial design to PWT (Director, Peter Warrick Thomson)

All signed loan forms to registrar, all forms complete

Draft text and labels to graphic designer

Final review of book materials before publication

Publication of Book

Submit material samples for testing to Kilby at SI (staff’s names)

All staff review Security, Facilities, Special Events, Education, Development, Communications, Membership, Shop

Lender restrictions added to checklist

TMS object records complete

Budget review of exhibition design details & adjustments

Lighting designer submit draft lighting layer to exhibition designer

Graphic designers submit draft layout information (elevations; side drawings of walls) to exhibition designers including color plan

Press/Members’ Preview invitations designed

Final text and labels to graphic designer

SIL (Smithsonian Institution Library) loan requests out

Submission of DD to NDM (National Design Museum), 65% SD410 submission to JS include graphic elevations, mounting details for graphics and lighting layer Result of 65% SD410

74 Table 1 Continued

Press kit delivered to short-term media

Fence (the signs about the show outside along the metal fence surrounding the museum) signs developed

Web site developed

Education Conference brochure/mailer designed INSTRUCTION DOCUMENTATION PHASE (3 months – 2 months before opening)

Construction documents –

Lighting order to Museum

Set up purchase orders

Submit to NDM, 95% SD410 submission to JS Results 95% SD410

Submit 100% SD410 to JS Prefabrication

Mount making and framing begin

Press/Members’ Preview invitation mailed

INSTALLATION (13 days before public opening)

Deinstallation

Construction, preparation, paint

Install objects

Light objects

Press preview

Opening party

Exhibition opens to public

As indicated by the calendar above, the first decisions that lead to the development of an exhibition idea are made in the concept phase. Then, in the development phase, the curatorial

75 director makes decisions about who to include and what disciplines and skills are required to get the job done. The functional phase encompasses the time when the exhibition is made available to the public and educational programs are offered. Important activities include security, maintenance, housekeeping, and periodic examinations of the exhibition. Finally, the evaluation phase concerns the assessment of the results. It provides a means of determining whether or not the goals set early in the process were met. In addition, the evaluation phase serves to point the way for future exhibitions, by suggesting ways to improve the process and the product. Current, Future and Traveling Exhibitions Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2005. In May 2006, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum presented Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2005, a rich, contextual journey through the evolution of dining from 1500 to 2005. More than 300 objects, including historic and modern flatware from the museum’s permanent collection, were featured in the one-floor exhibition, on view from May 5 through October 29, 2006. Feeding Desire offered an overview of the history of culinary culture, exploring the physical forms and social meanings of eating utensils and serving tools (Cooper-Hewitt Summer Catalogue, 2006). The exhibition was organized by the Cooper-Hewitt’s Sarah Coffin, a curator of 17th and 18th century decorative arts; Ellen Lupton, curator of contemporary design and guest curator Darra Goldstein, food historian and founding editor of Gastronomica magazine. Feeding Desire showcased the museum’s extensive collection of flatware, cutlery, and other accessories for the table, some of which will be on view for the first time in the museum’s history. “The culture of dining is an integral part of social history,” said Cooper-Hewitt director Paul Warwick Thompson. “Feeding Desire will demonstrate how sharing food can be an expression of love and power, duty and honor, knowledge and taste.” From here, I got an emerging theme, the “creativity” with which they approach the social embeddedness of their charge. Creativity, attempting something new beyond representations of the past, is one of the important themes we should keep in mind when we establish an exhibition in a new design museum. Feeding Desire examined through objects and graphic displays the distinct origin and design progression of each utensil during the last five centuries, tracing variations in social customs, cuisines, and decorative fashion in the United States and Europe. A digital slideshow of paintings, prints and other images depicting dining throughout history was on view in a nearby

76 gallery. Touch samples also were on display, allowing visitors to hold different types of flatware and to consider the role of various design elements that influence eating, such as materials, weight, and balance. Solos: Matali Crasset. In the fourth installment of the Solos exhibition series, the Cooper-Hewitt presented the work of French industrial designer Matali Crasset in her first solo museum exhibition in the United States. The exhibit was installed in the downstairs gallery that Bonnie told me about earlier; here exhibits are not scheduled more than a year in advance. Dubbed the "solo’s area" by Bonnie, the gallery is reserved for young, fresh, new designers and trends. In this way, if Figure 17. The Solos Exhibition 1 Bonnie sees work somewhere that is exciting, she can exhibit it more quickly than in the larger main galleries, where exhibitions take about five years of planning. Crasset, who began her career working for Philippe Starck, is one of Europe’s most exciting and original young designers. On view in the new ground floor gallery from May 19 through September 24, 2006, the exhibition ran concurrently with the exhibits Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500 - 2005 and Frederic Church, Winslow Homer and Thomas Moran: Figure 18. The Solos Exhibition 2 Tourism and the American Landscape. Bonnie described the power of the Solos: Matali Crasset exhibition: The newest "Solos" exhibition offers a very forward and dramatic look at how technology can be integrated into our residential spaces… Crasset’s ultramodern, almost futuristic work in the gallery serves as a striking contemporary counterpoint to the design discourse

77 explored in the main galleries (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). Crasset’s work explores residential and urban rituals and the domestication of technology; she uses industrial design products, graphics, theater sets, wallpaper, and furniture to achieve her purposes. For the exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt, Crasset employs distinct sound and visual experiences, including: d_fuse: an igloo-like structure, constructed of translucent cones and featuring different light and sound elements, situated at the far end of the gallery immersion: a home entertainment seating unit integrating an LCD flat screen and DVD system into its construction, intended to bring the user closer to technology sounddrops: small speakers and microphones that hang down into a soft-cell seating unit to provide an interactive, community music experience spotlight: a lighting fixture constructed of branching clusters of micro-fluorescent tubes and blown glass to form a floor-to-ceiling lighting network vinyl: individually designed wallpaper squares, manufactured by Domestic in Paris, which can be combined and customized into a number of different patterns and configurations, affixed to the gallery walls (Rogers, 2006). The French designer, Matali Crasset established her own company in 1998 and works in a broad range of areas, from furniture and clothing to scenography and architecture, typography and cosmetics (http://www.ndm.si.edu/current_exhibition). Before forming her own company, Crasset worked with the noted designer Philippe Starck and served as the head of Thomson Multimedia’s design center, Thim Thom. She has designed for leading design companies, including Artemide, Dornbracht, Edra and nekt /Pantone-Universe, among others. In 1999, she was awarded the Grand Prix de la Presse Internationale de la Critique du Meuble Contemporain. Crasset’s work has been featured in numerous publications worldwide, and currently appears in the permanent collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Upcoming collections-based exhibitions. Over the summer of 2006, the Cooper-Hewitt continued its series of collections-based exhibitions organized by invited designers, artists, journalists, and authors. One exhibition was called Yinka Shonibare Selects: Works from the Permanent Collection. As a guest curator, Yinka Shonibare, a British/Nigerian artist, chose to predominantly feature works acquired by the Cooper-Hewitt’s founders Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah

78 Hewitt. These works addressed the themes of transportation, imperialism, migration, and cultural exchange. Another exhibition opened in October 2006 in the Marks Gallery. Made to Scale: Staircase Masterpieces for the Permanent Collection, that opened in October 2006, celebrated the recent gift to the museum of Eugene V. Thaw’s collection of staircase models—the largest known holding of such models outside of France. In June 2007, the industrial design firm IDEO, whose staff of engineers and designers have created iconic products and digital interfaces for clients ranging from Apple Computer to Prada, will organize the sixth installment in this exhibition series (Rogers, 2006). Other upcoming exhibitions that will focus on the Cooper-Hewitt’s extensive collections include Piranesi as Designer, the first museum exhibition to examine the influence of Italian artist, architect, and archeologist Giovanni Battista Piranesi on the reform of architecture and design from the eighteenth century to the present. Samplings: Works from the Permanent Collection, opening in Sept. 2007, will draw from the museum’s collection of sample books— commercial publications containing illustrated examples of a design product or technique—to examine the historical and contemporary use of sampling formats in marketing and manufacturing industries. In addition to these collections-based presentations, the Cooper-Hewitt is also organizing Rococo: The Continuing Curve, an exhibition that will trace the rococo style from its inception in France in the eighteenth century through its modern-day revivals (Rogers, 2006). Traveling exhibitions. The Cooper-Hewitt’s exhibitions have traveled to other venues, giving national and international audiences the opportunity to access the museum’s collection and curatorial scholarship. The museum’s 2004 exhibition, Shock of the Old: Christopher Dresser, the first full-scale retrospective of the influential nineteenth century designer’s work, traveled to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that same year. Design ≠ Art: Functional Objects from Donald Judd to Rachel Whiteread, which featured seldom-seen design objects by some of the most well-known contemporary American artists, was on view at the Museum of Design in Atlanta and the Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, Colorado following its 2004–05 installation at Cooper-Hewitt. In 2005 Cooper-Hewitt organized Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance, the first museum exhibition to focus on technical textiles, which can currently be seen at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape will travel to the

79 Tampa Museum of Art in Florida in Jan. 2007, and in that same month, Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005 will open at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa, California. Additionally, the Cooper-Hewitt’s 2002 exhibition Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design, traveled to Essen, Germany as part of the ENTRY 2006 exposition (Rogers, 2006). The 2006 National Design Triennial: Now. Like the Whitney Biennale in the Whitney Museum in New York, the National Design Triennial is an ongoing exhibition series at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Inaugurated in 2000, the Triennial seeks out and presents the most innovative American designs from the prior three years in a variety of fields, including product design, architecture, furniture, film, graphics, new technologies, animation, science, medicine and fashion. On view throughout the museum campus is the work of 87 designers and firms, ranging from established design leaders such as Apple Computer, architect Santiago Calatrava, and Nike, to emerging designers like Joshua Davis, Jason Miller, and David Wiseman. The National Design Triennial: Design Life Now, made possible by Target, is on view from December 8, 2006 through July 29, 2007. Cooper-Hewitt curators Barbara Bloemink, Ellen Lupton, and Matilda McQuaid, along with guest curator Brooke Hodge of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, have presented experimental projects, emerging ideas, major buildings, new products, and media that were at the center of contemporary culture from 2003 to 2006. The curatorial team chose the designers and firms by group consensus, and, for the first time, collected nominations from the public through a blog-style Web site, which brought in nominations for designers and firms such as Electroland, Nicholas Blechman, and Marsha Ginsberg. “By displaying side-by-side the latest products and creative concepts from companies as diverse as Pixar, Google, Herman Miller, and NASA, the Triennial emphasizes the nearly infinite ways in which design plays a role in how we see, think about and experience the world around us,” said museum director Paul Warwick Thompson. “The Triennial exhibition, catalog, and related educational programming all advance Cooper-Hewitt’s mission to increase the public understanding of the impact of design on daily life.” said Paul Warwick Thompson. The National Design Triennial: Design Life Now exhibition focuses on four principal ideas that have characterized elements of the design world during the last three years: emulating life; community; hand-crafted and do-it-yourself design; and transformation.

80 The Emulating Life exhibition highlights designs that emulate the natural world—either through form or movement—from to robotics to products like kayaks and sneakers. Many new designs are based on biomimicry, studying the appearance and form of natural organisms in order to replicate various processes and functions. In the process of designing the Nike Free running shoe, for example, Nike designers explored the physiognomy of the human foot to try to emulate in a shoe the range of motion that occurs in the toes and feet when running barefoot. The Community exhibits demonstrate how design has responded to the growth and dissemination of the Internet, which has led to the evolution of vast communities that interact across enormous distances via blogs, film and animation, graphic design, limited-edition toys and music. The Hand-Crafted and Do-it-Yourself Design exhibits represent a major segment of the Triennial and feature designers whose work reflects a renewed appreciation for craft and personalization, whether through the use of specialized techniques such as embroidery and beading, or hand-crafted and do-it-yourself approaches. The Transformation exhibits explore the transformation of form and materials through design, whether by bringing the outside into architectural interiors, using light to dissolve and transform surfaces, or creating interactive floors and artificial gardens. Landscape architect Ken Smith, whose work is featured, is well known for transforming urban areas into visually pleasing and inspiring oases through color, foliage, earth, grass, artificial rocks and plants and water. As the exhibitions described above demonstrate, the Cooper-Hewitt attempts to exhibit varied degrees of design related exhibitions, and include information about the users of design, an element neglected in other exhibitions (Margolin, 2002).

81 Observation Results Table 2 and 3 are sources from the Cooper-Hewitt’s exhibition procedural document. Table 2. Role-Ordered Display of Tasks of Staff Members at the Cooper-Hewitt Time Period Deinstallation Installation Exhibition

Weeks Weeks Periods Role

Inspect: Exhibition graphics, Reception, shipping, repairing check list/label taking care of the exhibit area, spackling, production, spatial exhibition, taping top of walls, etc. arrangement, the color preparing a post- of the exhibit exhibition, environment, putting having the Curator Role the promotional plan exhibition open on

into action, keeping a regular basis; track of progress, presenting the developing the educational educational programs programs; doing visitor surveys. Condition reports, Check list, Acquisition, packing, shipping, all label production, insurance, documenting, returning hanging works documenting works objects to the collection for post-exhibition. Registrar Role storage

Shipping, Mounting and Maintaining all spackling, installing the objects in pieces and interior taping top of walls, the exhibition; of the gallery, doing

repairing lightings hanging works, type of maintenance on the Preparator Role lighting. exhibition,

providing security for the exhibition.

82 Table 3. Time-Ordered Display of Stages in Exhibition Development at the Cooper-Hewitt CONCEPT PHASE Concept stage: Product-oriented activities: sorting through ideas and deciding which to pursue. Management activities: looking at the ideas in relation to museum and audience needs and the museum’s mission; selecting exhibit ideas to develop; assessing available resources to do the project. Results: creating the schedule of exhibits; identifying potential resources. DEVELOPMENTAL PHASE (installation weeks) Planning stage: Product-oriented activities: setting goals for the exhibition; deciding on the storyline; designing the exhibition; creating an educational plan; creating a promotional plan (if needed). Management activities: estimating costs; looking for sources of funds or resources; budgeting resources; assigning tasks. Results: a plan for making the exhibition; a plan for educating with the exhibition. Production stage: Product-oriented activities: building the exhibit parts; mounting and installing the objects in the exhibition; developing the educational programs; putting the promotional plan into action. Management activities: controlling the use of resources; keeping track of progress. Results: presenting the exhibition to public; using the educational programs with the exhibition. FUNCTIONAL PHASE (exhibition period) Operational stage: Product-oriented activities: having the exhibition open on a regular basis; presenting the educational programs;

83 Table 3 Continued doing visitor surveys; doing maintenance on the exhibition; providing security for the exhibition. Management activities: setting accounts. Results: achieving the exhibition goals; preventing deterioration of collections. Terminating stage: (deinstallation weeks) Product-oriented activities: dismantling the exhibition; returning objects to the collection storage. Management activities: balancing accounts. Results: the exhibition is closed; the collections are cared for; the gallery is cleared and repaired. EVALUATION PHASE Evaluation stage: Product-oriented activities: assessing the exhibition; assessing the process of making the exhibition. Management activities: making an evaluation report. Results: improving the product and the process. These above charts are what I observed a process of exhibition and figured out while I stayed for the whole exhibition period from installation to deinstallation. The deinstallation process. On the day I arrived to observe Bonnie a deinstallation was scheduled. Bonnie explained that it takes at least one or two weeks to de-install all the artworks in one exhibit prior to setting up the next. She soon began to work as we talked. She wrapped artworks and had interns wrap other artworks carefully with a plastic wrapper, taping them and then using a magic marker to write on the tape. She asked one of the interns to bring a blanket to protect the artworks. Then she chose a wooden crate to ship the works and screwed it onto a carpeted floor dolly.

84 Bonnie continued to deinstall the previous exhibit by removing all screws and hanging hardware from the walls, and then putting small amounts of spackle on the walls. She wiped off the excess, and used a sponge for the final wiping, working progressively around the gallery. She used two knives: one for applying spackle, and the other as a palette. She taught the interns how to do it, saying, “Never work from an open can. It will Figure 19. The Installation Process 1 cause the spackling compound in the can to dry out unnecessarily….Guys, do not put dried or semi-dried spackle back into a can. Adding a small amount of water and stirring vigorously can thin spackle out. Spackle should have a creamy consistency.” They scraped off the knife into the trashcan, and removed all spackle from the surrounding area. Then they used a clean sponge and a bucket of lukewarm water to make a final removal of the excess spackle. Bonnie gave the interns important tips from her own experience. “Remove old tape from joints by peeling upward. Dispose in trashcan…Apply new tape to joints starting from the top and working your way down, cutting the tape with knife at the top and bottom of the walls…You guys cannot simply wrap tape around the edge of walls, these will pop up during the exhibit…Using your fingers, burnish down tape firmly from top to bottom…Brackets must be taped separately, do not run vertical tape over horizontal brackets.” The installation process. When I asked Bonnie what she saw as most important during the installation period, she observed, I think dependability, punctuality, teamwork, thoroughness, and responsibility. When tasks are assigned I encourage staff to use and develop these skills. For example, when beginning a task, you may not be sure of the best procedure to follow. In this situation I recommend that you make decisions based upon your judgment and seek guidance when necessary. In most cases you will not only accomplish the task, you will develop a crucial work skill. This type of work behavior is preferred over the worker who is in constant need of supervision (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I noticed the title graphic for the exhibition, which functions the same as a headline in the print media. I asked Bonnie how she decided on the exhibition graphic they were using in the

85 installation. She said, It should harmonize with all the other elements of the exhibition; reflect the nature of the exhibition. So I work closely with those interns producing the checklist and exhibit labels in selecting the font style for the title. A series of graphic ideas are worked out on the computer. Once a selection has been made a transparency of the title can then be printed and projected on the wall in the gallery. This is very useful in determining size and location specifics. Then a mechanical of the finished title graphic is faxed to the sign company (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I observed one of the interns asking Bonnie about the components of the checklists. Bonnie clearly specified the necessary content: “The artist’s name goes first, and then, title and date, medium, dimensions, accession number and lender’s name, and credit line for the last.” I asked Bonnie to explain how she makes decisions about where the objects in the exhibition are to be hung. She explained, Once we are sure all the work is in the gallery, then the arrangement process begins. During this work we will occasionally decide to erect a wall here or there to complete the design. When the Figure 20. The Installation Process 2 layout is complete the exact location of the works are recorded on the walls with pencils…Picture/2 + 59’- hanging hook distance is the answer…The height of the work is divided by two and then 59 is added so that the works have the same center point and are at a good viewing distance (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I selected two themes appropriate to the situations presented. One of the themes is process and progress of an exhibition from deinstallation to installation. The other theme is Bonnie’s philosophy in design museum. Through attempting to represent the construction of a persuasive narrative some aspect of a felt, “real” experience, I believe that there is transactive meaning and human significance embedded in it (Anderson, 2000).

86 Interview Highlights/Results In Art as Experience, Dewey’s primary purpose was to restore the continuity of aesthetic experience within the normal processes of living (Dewey, 1934). Based on the idea that life proceeds in an environment and experiences come from the channel by which human beings interact with their environment, Dewey analyzes aesthetic experience within the context of our everyday lives. Using the same scope as that in Dewey’s theory, I studied the work of Bonnie in the area of museum exhibition and curation. My first appointment to see Bonnie was set for Wednesday, July 11, at 11 am. Long before the meeting, I had recognized the importance of Anderson’s (2000) assertion that qualitative research has to be emergent, descriptive, interpretive, evaluative, and thematic, and I studied his methods. In addition, my reading of Eisner (1991) helped me to see that personal biography is an important tool for researchers and sometimes the major instrument through which meaning is made and interpretation expressed. As a result, I read Bonnie’s vitae over and over the night before meeting her, so that I could gain a better understanding of her personal biography. On the day of our meeting, I arrived one hour earlier, at 10 am. Bonnie's office door was open, and she was reading something. When she noticed someone standing in front of her office, she stopped reading and looked at me. “Hi!” she said. She smiled at me. “Hi! Are you Bonnie?” I asked. “Yes, I am.” She responded in a very soft and gentle voice. “I am Eunice Lee,” I explained. “Welcome! I was expecting you, Eunice. You know what? Today is for the day we take down all previous artworks that were exhibited, so you can observe me and sense the process.” With this interaction I began my inquiry. I felt fortunate to be able to immediately observe a deinstallation process and learn about how installation worked at the Cooper-Hewitt as well. It seemed an auspicious start. Bonnie's life history. According to Seidman (1988), the first step in an interview involves a focus on the subject's life history, establishing a context for in-depth interviewing. Therefore, in of the first stage of my interview with Bonnie, I focused on her life history in order to establish a context for her present life.

87 “Could you tell me your educational background, position, and number of years in this job?” I asked. She said, “I’ve been in this position as a curatorial director for 4 years. My background is that I have B.A. in art history from Stanford University, and then I got one masters degree, in American design & art at NYU [New York University], and then I got a second master's degree in European design & art at Yale University, and then I got a Ph.D. in contemporary design & art at Yale, so I’ve been to school a very long time.” Bonnie's role as a design museum professional and curator. I asked Bonnie to tell me more about her job and if there are aspects to what she does that should be included in her job description (but aren’t), or if there is some work she does that should be done by someone else. She said, My job is to be responsible for creating the overall scheduling and choice of exhibitions and the strategic vision for the collections. We have fine curators whose work I manage and supervise… I also come up with the strategies for where the collections are going in the future, and create a schedule for exhibitions that’s balanced. That is so we always have something historic and something contemporary somewhere at the same time in the building, so that every exhibition represents new scholarship, but also is appealing to the public…so we are always trying to get balance in the different exhibition styles and periods so that there’s always something to see that is interesting. But it’s also identifying what the most important works are, to save them for the future, both historical, and even some contemporary. And I suppose I do more administrative stuff than I’d like to be doing so it would be nice if that were in someone else’s job description. I’d like to do more strategic long-term thinking and actually curating more exhibitions. I’m very interested at traveling art exhibitions around the world and that’s more interesting to me than administrative work (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). The second step in my interview process was to understand the details of Bonnie's current experience by asking her to reconstruct those details within the context in which they occur. Seidman (1998) recommended this approach for in-depth interviewing. Bonnie's philosophy on the relationship between art and design. As I constructed my literature review I continuously sought to define the relationship between art and design. I found it difficult to explain this relationship. In Bonnie's book (Bloemink & Cunningham, 2004), Art and Design, she described design and art as both different and the same, noting that the long

88 relationship between the fine and applied arts has been both harmonious and fractious. In modern Western society, scholars have found it necessary to distinguish between aesthetics and function, between the spiritual in art, and the corporeal in design. I was pleased to have the opportunity to hear directly from her about this, so I asked, “What do you think of the relationship between art and design?” She responded, Very good question. I wrote a whole book on this subject and it was the first exhibition I curated here. I think the lines between them are disappearing. They’re blurring very quickly. However, generally, design is a process of collaboration. Designers works with engineers, mechanics, and assistants, and it’s made for clients. Whereas art tends to be, most of time, a solo act, and it doesn’t have the same kind of active function that design has. It doesn’t have to “work.” Art, however, even though we often do not think of it this way, has always had a kind of “function” historically whether as a propaganda tool for the church in the Renaissance, a form of self-promotion among the artistocracy in the Seventeenth-Eighteenth centuries, a sign of virtuosity in the Nineteenth century, and with the Impressionists, to show the scientific contemporary studies of light and how we see, and in the Twentieth century at various periods it was intended to function as political statements (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I asked Bonnie whether it is accurate to say that art can cover the whole area of design. She answered, No. Some people say that arts with an ‘s’ covers all art, design, theater, music, and drama, right? That’s valid, but today there are a lot of designers who are making one-of works (ie., prototypes) that are not meant to be manufactured, and the question is how is that not art? And there are a number of artists who are making work in collaborative groups that are manufactured, so under the traditional, rigid definition that is design…these traditional differences are getting smaller and smaller (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I observed that this change would suggest that the notion of design would not encompass the concept of art. Bonnie responded: No. They are very, very close now. And even artists and designers don’t want to be called in artists or designers any more. Increasingly, there are some contemporary artists that,

89 when I say, “You’re an artist,” they say, “Well, sometimes I’m an artist and sometimes I’m a designer.” People today, especially the younger generation, don’t want to be put in categories anymore (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I suggested that in the field of design there is an art part, a design part, and a mixed part. Bonnie agreed: Exactly. There’s always blurry stuff in the middle. But the most extreme art is a very personal piece made by one person that is meaningful to very small group. And the most extreme design piece is a mass-engineered piece where function is more important than how something looks. Today most objects are somewhere in between these two extremes (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I noted that some art historians claim that design emerged from art history, so that the field of design itself is generated from their history. Bonnie observed, They say that a lot. But then I point out that you go back and you look at the first painting in the cave paintings, those are arts but they’re also decoration, wall decoration, which is design. And we don’t know what the function was, so how do you distinguish between what part is art and what part is design? And actually, I’ll give you this book [Design ≠ Art] to take back. Here’s a book I wrote…as I write about this historically, since the Renaissance, to show that some eras considered art more important than design and other times, like during the Bauhaus movement, design was considered more important than art. The significance between art and design was constantly changing in Western history – this is not the case in Asia where decorative arts such as ceramics, ironwork, scroll painting and have always been considered equally important, and equally valued (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). After this exchange with Bonnie, I realized that it is difficult to try to distinguish between art and design, and it seems fitting to let the evolution of these ideas continue to enhance each other, both in theory and in practice because the line between them is disappearing. If we must distinguish them at all, we can note that most design works are made for clients, whereas art tends to be an individual act that doesn’t necessarily have to function in the same manner as design. Exhibition management strategies. I asked Bonnie about her day-to-day practice, and to give me an example of a recent project. She explained,

90 At any time in my position, I have ten exhibitions that we are working on at different stages of completion on the exhibition schedule here, where I track—between 2006 and 2010 —where exhibitions are on schedule for openings in all of the different galleries. And so on typical days I meet with groups from each exhibition to see whether they’re in the early stages, whether trying to come up with a thesis, whether their exhibition ‘flow' will be clear to the visitors, at what stage they are in completing the checklist of objects to put in the show, looking at design drawings for the different stages of completion with designers to show what the show will look like when installed, or meeting with the person who is in charge of organizing the exhibition and we sit down and say ‘Okay, this museum in Korea wants to borrow this exhibition that we organized, how will that work?’ So a lot of my days are in meetings. And then we have, on a typical day, committee meetings with some of the board members on the collections, or I might just have updating meetings with my director on what’s happening. I might go to lunch with potential donors, including people who want to give something to our collections or I might be writing one of the essays for an exhibition catalogue (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). I observed what a lot of work Bonnie does, and of what different kinds. She responded, “Yes, there is a lot of stuff all happening at the same time.” I noted that she even prepares exhibitions for five years in advance. She explained, You have to. You have to pretty much begin to plan each exhibition five years in advance, and three years in advance you have to begin seeking money so that you have enough to support the exhibition the way you want it to be and look. About a year and a half before the exhibition you have to know all of the works in the exhibition, all the loan forms have to be sent out to lenders who either agree or not to loan their work, and then a year in advance you have to hire the exhibition designer who works with the checklist and curator and myself to design the show’s 'character and look'. It’s a process you have to begin way in advance to achieve beautiful and significant exhibitions, especially when loans come from abroad and private collectors and other museums, and then you have to prepare all the shipping for these exhibition objects coming from all over, so from the beginning it all has to be in a clear timetable (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006).

91 I asked Bonnie about the educational role of design museums, and for examples. She answered, Part of our programming in education is something like the Summer Design Institute, where we bring teachers from all over the country and spend the week talking to them about big design issues. The idea behind this is to try to get them to incorporate design into their teaching process—whether it’s mathematics, or geography, or art classes. When teachers leave the SDI, they have lesson plans to bring back to their classroom and use to incorporate design. Let’s say, for example, you’re teaching math. You can include architecture into a math class to help students understand and work with geometry, and that’s a way to have children start learning and thinking about design without even realizing it. So you teach the teachers, then the teachers teach other teachers when they go back to schools, and so it starts to spread. Also, we’re going to put educational lesson plans on the web, and we have educational programs for every exhibition that are based on the exhibitions. For example, maybe we will have one of the artists in the exhibition talking on a panel or symposium, all related to the exhibitions. These are organized by the education department, and also the education department will go out in schools or neighborhoods and work with young people to design a park in neighborhood or something that enhances their home area. So, our education department both brings people to the museum, but also goes out to their community and brings designers and the designer’s work within the communities. The goal of education is to engage everybody as much as possible, from students who grow up learning about design and being interested in design, all the way to adults who come in to listen to design lectures (Bonnie, personal communication, July 19, 2006). Interpretive Summary Every museum should adopt a clear process for creating its exhibitions (Edson & Dean, 1996). When conceiving of such a process, it may help to think in terms of a lifecycle, that is, from conception to end. It is vital that all those involved in the various stages of the exhibition have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, how their input fits into the overall process, and who has final say at any given stage. The Cooper-Hewitt has an overall exhibition policy, calendar, and guideline for stages of exhibition development, which is divided into four phases: the conceptual phase, the development phase, the functional phase, and the assessment

92 phase. Such a process is organized and arranged not to make mistakes for huge exhibition process. The description of this process may give the impression of linearity, and of a potentially divisive territorialism; therefore, it is useful to distinguish between project conceptualization and implementation. The role of the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition staff is to create highly directed, refined, and executed learning environments. The exhibition goal is to have an exhibition program, which is consistent with the design museum’s mission and provides for a diversity of historical design periods and styles and a wide variety of design topics. The chief curator/curatorial director and curator any proposals to ensure they are in line with the strategic vision and mission of the museum, combining both new scholarship on the subject and appeal to general audience. Visitor needs and interests can be incorporated through front-end evaluation and visitor studies. Implementation will fall to relevant departments or experts, though some may prefer to assign tasks to sub-groups of the project team. A small group of decision makers – such as the project team leaders – and member(s) of senior management monitor the progress of the exhibition and compliance with the stated purpose, schedule, and budget. Exhibitions must be periodically reviewed and updated by the chief curator and the project team, and the budget updated as more accurate information is available. All exhibitions benefit greatly from such a review process. A concept review, which looks at all aspects of the exhibition from concepts to methods and means, should be paralleled by a strategic review, in which senior management consider the impact of the exhibition, including finances and marketing, from an institution-wide perspective. Bonnie offered a prime example of a successful director of art exhibits and programs. She implements her philosophy in the museum and her ideas seem to work well in exhibitions. Her use of thematic exhibitions, cooperative installations, as well as her positive work attitude and the obvious gratification she finds in executing her work all make her shiny and glorious. The fundamental challenge she faces in creating the Cooper-Hewitt's exhibitions and programs is finding out how to transform the obvious enthusiasm of visitors into connected, engaging, integrated activities that lead to growth. Bonnie seems well aware that when the educational effort works well, the learner actively and effectively participates through interaction

93 with the object. To me, Bonnie is rigorously hardworking, studious, and passionate about her job. Most of all, I could sense that she loves the museum environment, visitors, curating art, and her life. Bonnie provided an incredible stimulus for pushing me forward to study further in art. In the time I spent with her, I gained tremendous professional insight regarding museums as institutions, museum careers, and positions within the museum field to which I aspire. The interviews conducted with Bonnie were adopted from a three-step series recommended by Seidman (1998). These interviews suggest a pattern of questions beginning with a focused life history, the details of experience, and reflections on meaning. My field notes were first written and jotted on-site with great attention to detail. Then the field notes were taken home for re-writing, clarification, and expansion. According to Seidman (1998), interviewing requires that researchers gain access to, and make contact with, potential participants who they have never met. Indeed, taking the initiative, establishing contact, and scheduling and completing interviews were very satisfying accomplishments for me. Collections Policy and Management Document Analysis/Results Definition of Collections Rogers (2006) noted that the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's principal collections are designated as Accessioned (using individual accession numbers), Supplementary (not accessioned, registered, and tracked using numbers), and Archive (accessioned using batch numbers). The Accessioned Collection at the museum refers to its permanent collection of objects, including architectural elements, graphic arts, drawings and prints, furniture, textiles, metalwork, ceramics, glass, jewelry, wallcoverings, woodwork, and other applied arts (Rogers, 2006). Supplementary Collections are comprised of objects that are acquired to support the program goals of the Cooper-Hewitt, but that are not fit for the Accessioned Collection. Supplementary Collections may include objects in too poor condition for accession; duplicates of lesser quality or poor condition; fakes; and exhibition props made by the museum. Objects may be acquired as a result of deaccessions from the Accessioned Collection; unsolicited gifts; found objects within or outside the Museum; samples from manufacturers; donations; and purchases (Rogers, 2006). Archive Collections are comprised of the working papers, scrapbooks, and photocopies

94 of correspondence of designers, companies involved with design, window designers, etc. Archive collections are stored and made accessible by the museum as documents for illuminating the history and process of design, and they are used for study. The contents of such collections are not individually registered in the same manner as accessioned objects. Three dimensional objects and primary work such as drawings in an Archive collection may be approved for the Accessioned Collection. Examples of Archive collections are: the Picture Collection, the Color Archive, the Bonney Collection, the Donald Deskey Collection, the Dreyfuss Collection, the Horwitt Collection, the Kubler Collection, the Sutnar Collection, and the Wallance Collection (Rogers, 2006). Other related collection categories may be established by the Director and are managed in accordance with administrative policies to be formulated by the Director or a delegate of the Director with the advice and counsel of selected staff members. In general, the Collections are managed according to relevant conventions, laws, and statutes of the United States, and according to the following Smithsonian Institution Office Memoranda: SD103: Standards of Conduct, SD108: Insurance and Risk Management Policy, SD600: Collections Management Policy, MAY 9, 1973: SI Policy on Museum Acquisitions (Rogers, 2006). Collections Categories Since its inception as a comprehensive study collection, the holdings at the Cooper- Hewitt have been divided into four categories; product design and decorative arts, drawings, prints and graphic design, textiles, and wallcoverings. Product design and decorative arts. The Department of Product Design and Decorative Arts is home to more than 40,000 three-dimensional objects that date from antiquity to the present (Rogers, 2006). Categories of objects within the department include ceramics, furniture, metalwork, lighting, glass, jewelry, architectural elements and industrial design. Chairs are a special area of strength in the furniture collection; the collection of lighting fixtures is also one of rare depth. The Decloux Collection of carved wooden wall panels, dating from the Renaissance to the Nineteenth century, is an outstanding resource for historic interior styles and . Silver tablewares, wrought iron gates and architectural elements, and a large selection of French Eighteenth century gilt-bronze furniture mounts can be found in the metalwork collection. The Museum’s comprehensive ceramics collection ranges from ancient Greek vessels and pre-Columbian pottery to Twentieth century tablewares (Rogers, 2006). Notable in the glass

95 collection are Syrian and Roman pieces, and Irish cut-glass tablewares from the early Nineteenth century. Other highlights of the Applied Arts Department are the Metzenberg Collection of historic cutlery, the Shapiro Collection of Twentieth century Soviet porcelains, the Brener Collection of matchsafes, Japanese tsuba (sword fittings), jewelry, and fasteners, precious small boxes and cases, birdcages, lacquer and leatherwork, enamels, plastics, and models and prototypes for cars and other products. Appliances represented in the department’s collections include machines and tools made for home and office (Yelavich, 1997). Drawings, prints, and graphic design. Housing over 160, 000 works on paper, the National Design Museum’s Drue Heinz Study Center for Drawing and Prints ranks among the world’s foremost repositories of European and American designs for architecture, decorative arts, gardens, interiors, ornament, theater, textiles, and graphic and industrial design (Rogers, 2006). One of the department’s greatest strengths is material relating to Italian Renaissance design and the decorative arts. In spring 2002, a Michelangelo drawing, Design for a Candlestick was discovered by Sir Timothy Clifford and universally accepted by scholars as an original. Cooper- Hewitt is one of only eight public institutions in the United States to own a work by the Renaissance master (Rogers, 2006). Yelavich (1997) stated the encyclopedic holdings of this department range from a Fourteenth-century North Italian and a late Fifteenth-century German drawing for a Gothic steeple to the work of such contemporary American and European designers as Donald Deskey, Henry Dreyfuss, Jean Puiforcat, Edward McKnight Kauffer, Dakota Jackson, Eva Zeisel, Elaine Lusting Cohen, and Robert Wilson. No other collection in this country matches its strength in seventeenth to nineteenth century Italian and French drawings and prints pertaining to ornament, decorative arts, and architecture. Other treasures include a rare group of early Nineteenth-century drawings by Frederick Crace created for the exotic interiors of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, and over 400 Japanese kata-gami (stencil) patterns for textiles. Twentieth- century American designs for architecture and industrial design are also represented in considerable depth, along with Twentieth-century graphic design comprising a variety of print media, from posters to book covers to stationery. The department also houses a wide-ranging collection of architecture and interior design drawings from the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries (Rococo and ) to the Twentieth and Twenty First centuries, represented by drawings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Hugh

96 Ferriss, Ely Jacques Kahn, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, William Lescaze, Paul Rugolph, Also Rossi, Mario Batta, Roger Ferri, James Wines, , Samuel Mockbee, and Billie Tsien (Yelavich, 1997). Contemporary American and European graphic design holdings include work by Alvin Lustig and Elaine Lustig Cohen, Tibor Kalman, Art Chantry, Paul Rand, Milton Glaser, and design firms such as Pentagram, Émigré, Reverb, Bruce Mau, and Stefan Sagmeister (Yelavich, 1997). The department also includes an extensive collection of material relating to the history of illustration, typography, and the book arts, as well as the application of traditional print media and commercial advertising (Yelavich, 1997). Textiles. An extraordinarily wide range of textile techniques is represented in the 30,000 pieces of the Museum’s textile collection, including embroidery, knitting, crochet, braiding, knotting, quilting, and needle and bobbin-made lace, as well as printing (using engraved plates, wooden blocks, rollers, lithography, and silk screens), various forms of resist dyeing (including tie-dye, ikat, batik, and painted, printed, and stenciled resist), fabric painting, and weaving (ranging from simple plain weave to complex draw room and jacquard woven patterns). The range of dates of the pieces in the collection is just as far-reaching (Yelavich, 1997). The earliest pieces are from Han Dynasty China (206 B.C.-A.D. 221) and pre- Columbian South America, while the latest pieces were made in the 1990s. Special strengths of the department are woven European silks from the Thirteenth through the Eighteenth centuries, French and English printed fabric from the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth centuries, the collection of nearly 1,000 embroidered samplers, and classic European laces from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries (Yelavich, 1997). Wallcoverings. The museum holds the largest and most comprehensive survey of wallcoverings in the country, with over 10,000 examples. Yelavich (1997) described that collected for their historic associations, for design inspiration, or as examples of printed material, the holdings are especially rich in examples of exuberant French floral compositions from the Nineteenth century, as well as William Morris-inspired patterns and early American block- printed papers. Wallcoverings made for the most fashionable homes and the simplest of cottages are represented, as are panoramic and scenic papers, Seventeenth century Dutch gilded leather wallcoverings, and Eighteenth century French block-printed arabesques. Twentieth-century wallcoverings are represented in papers designed by students at the Bauhaus in 1929 and by

97 Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956, and in such recent additions as Jhane Barnes’s 1992 designs, which are made with acrylic resin powders. The holdings also include sample books, printing books, and advertisements. Library and archives. In addition to the four categories of holdings, there is one more important component of the Collections Department (Yelavich, 1997). The Doris and Henry Dreyfuss Memorial Study Center, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, contains 55,000 volumes, including 5,000 rare books pertaining to ornament, architecture, and decorative arts. The library’s collections focus on interior, graphic, and industrial design, along with books on textiles, wallcoverings, architecture, and design. The Library has significant holdings of swatch books, trade catalogues, World’s Fair literature, children’s books, pattern books, and over 600 pop-up and moveable books. The National Design Museum’s Archives contain the papers, promotional materials, clippings, and photographs of designers and design firms, including M & Co., Edward F. Caldwell, George Nathan Horwitt, Don Wallance, Donald Deskey, Henry Dreyfuss, and Ladislav Sutnar. The Archives also contain special resource files on African- American and Latino-Hispanic designers (Yelavich, 1997). Collections Management Policy Most museums have a collections policy document that provides written policies covering all aspects of the acquisition, care, use, and disposition of objects for their museum (Edson & Dean, 1996). According to Rogers (2006), the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has a policy document that sets forth regulations for the creation, maintenance, care, and use of the records for such objects. The document also contains the policies for accessions to the collection, for incoming and outgoing loans of objects, and for maintaining inventory control. Importantly, it specifies the circumstances and methods of deaccessioning objects from the collection, and states the Museum’s policy concerning access to collections objects and records. In addition, it recognizes the dual goals of access and accountability. Rogers (2006) stated that the Accessioned collections of design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum are the foundation for the Museum's programs and a vehicle through which the Museum carries out its mission to educate the public. The areas of concentration in these collections are product design and decorative arts, textiles, wallcoverings, and drawings, prints, and graphic design. The Cooper-Hewitt's collections are expanded and enriched by selectively building on existing strengths, by filling gaps in collections of technical, material,

98 stylistic, historic, or contextual significance, and, in special instances, by introducing and pursuing new areas of collecting. Current and future collections development also is detailed in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum collecting policy. Curatorial division staffs are responsible for developing, reviewing, and revising this policy as needed. According to Rogers (2006), when unexpected collecting opportunities arise they are discussed by the Collections Committee and a recommendation is made to the Director about whether or not to pursue specific acquisitions. Should an unexpected opportunity involve a new area of collecting, the Committee assigns the collection to the appropriate department(s) for care and preservation and establishes mutually agreeable interdepartmental controls for preserving and assuring access to it. Space for storage of collections is an important factor in deciding whether or not to commence collecting in a new area, although preferential consideration is given to collections of undeniable significance to the Cooper-Hewitt in spite of storage limitations. The Cooper-Hewitt discourages the acceptance of collections that do not meet the stringent review required to pursue acquisition in a new collecting area, while making every effort to suggest a suitable home for such collections. In deciding whether to accept a collection, the Collections Committee also considers such factors as whether the Cooper-Hewitt has adequate personnel to catalogue or manage and whether the museum has the financial support needed to purchase it, carry out conservation and photographic documentation, and make it accessible through visual, electronic, or study storage methods. Efforts to raise needed financial resources are made alongside requests for donations of objects or purchase funds, and alongside requests for support from foundations, corporations, and individuals who may be interested in backing collections development at the Museum. Collections Management Activity Documentation. The purpose of collections records is the control and documentation of objects in the collection (Rogers, 2006). The registrar's office is responsible for maintaining and making available up-to-date records that document the history and all activities affecting objects in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's custody, along with their status (whether an object is in the Accessioned, Supplementary, or Archive collection; whether it has been deaccessioned; or whether it is on loan or temporarily left in the custody of the Museum.) The Registrar ensures that all documents in use by the Cooper-Hewitt are reviewed by the Smithsonian Institution Office of General Counsel and Office of Risk Management. The

99 Registrar's Office is responsible for creating and maintaining accession records for each object and maintaining incoming and outgoing loan records. The appropriate curatorial department is then responsible for cataloguing each object and maintaining object research files. All records must be created in an accurate, complete, and timely manner and updated regularly and safeguarded from hazards such as fire, water, loss, or vandalism. Property files containing legal documents pertaining to the collection are stored in locked, fireproof filing cabinets by the Registrar. Microfilm of Accession Books and Journals of Entry prior to 1980 are stored off premises in Smithsonian Institution Archives. Automated records are backed up and stored in an off-site, fire-proof location. The acquisition of objects. Acquisitions are made through a gift, bequest, purchase, or exchange and require the approval of the Collections Committee and the Director (Rogers, 2006). The Collections Committee meets at regular intervals to consider objects offered to the Cooper- Hewitt, and at any other time action is required. The Committee makes a recommendation to the Director, with whom final authority regarding acquisition rests. When acquisition of an object valued at $50,000 or more is contemplated by the Collections Committee, the Chair of the Collections Committee must report the transaction to the Board of Trustees for recommendation before making a final decision. For all purchases, the evaluation of the proposed purchase price by the Cooper-Hewitt should be documented in writing. It is the Director's responsibility to refer to the Under Secretary for Art any proposed acquisition that merits additional review because of unusual circumstances. The Registrar prepares and files a written record of the Committee's recommendations and all subsequent action taken by the Director. The curator to whose collection an object has been offered as a gift, bequest, exchange, or purchase prepares a formal recommendation along with supportive justification for acceptance or rejection (Rogers, 2006). This recommendation must include reference to all restrictions, associated costs, or other eccentricities attached to an object. Justification for adding objects to the Collection may be based on one or more distinct evaluations of the intellectual, social, material, technical, and visual significance of an object. Five major considerations are germane to any discussion concerning acquisition: 1) concept or original idea, 2) design elements, 3) materials and techniques, 4) function and/or use, 5) importance of object in history of design. In order to be added to the collection an object must meet each of the following criteria: 1) The appropriateness of an object to the scope of the collection, 2) The potential of an object

100 for exhibition and/or study, 3) The condition of an object and whether it is within the capabilities of the museum's conservation resources to provide necessary care, 4) the museum's capability to store an object, 5) the possibility of achieving satisfactory resolution of copyright, trademark, or other restrictions on use or ownership, 6) the acceptability of an object's provenance. Lending and borrowing. Rogers (2006) distinguishes between outgoing loans and incoming loans. Outgoing loans are in the tradition of lending objects from the collections to other public institutions such as museums, libraries, and schools in order to make them publicly accessible in the broadest manner, while recognizing considerations of good conservation practices and the museum's own exhibition and research plans. A formal request by a responsible official of a borrowing institution must be reviewed and approved by the Loans Committee, which meets at regularly scheduled intervals. Considerations in assessing the request include questions of unusual restrictions or requirements and whether the object can withstand physical conditions such as prolonged exposure to light, change of climate, excessive handling, and transportation. The Director's decision, after consultation with the Loans Committee, is binding. The borrowing institution must submit a facilities report, describing the security arrangements, environmental controls, and lighting facilities available, and including general data on the institution's operation and staff aptitudes (Rogers, 2006). In addition, the registrar is responsible for negotiating an Agreement of Outgoing Loan. A signed copy of the Agreement from the borrower must be obtained and signed by the registrar before the loan is made. Once a loan request has been approved by the Loan Committee, the registrar's office makes arrangements with the borrowing institution for insurance coverage, packing, and shipping. The Registrar ensures that recoverable costs will be met by the borrowing institution. The duration of a loan must be specified on the Agreement for Outgoing Loan and proof of insurance coverage must be received before an object is sent. The registrar's office, in consultation with the conservation department, is responsible for preparing an outgoing condition report and for monitoring an object during loan procedures until its departure. On its return, the same office reviews the outgoing condition report for any apparent change before returning it to the curatorial department from which it came. If an outgoing loan is uncollectible, the Registrar enlists the help of the Smithsonian’s General Counsel. Incoming loans are processed as follows: once an exhibition has been selected by the Exhibitions Committee and added to the schedule, objects may be borrowed by Cooper-Hewitt

101 National Design Museum for exhibition and for study from a variety of sources - including individuals, other institutions, manufacturers, dealers, or governmental agencies (Rogers, 2006). Exhibition content is reviewed for its impact on the public. The loan request is made by the appropriate curator and the loan agreement is signed by the registrar. Borrowed objects likewise are documented and monitored by the registrar's office. An Agreement of Incoming Loan specifies the duration of the loan; this document must be completed by the registrar before the loan arrives at the Cooper-Hewitt. The Registrar is responsible for supervision, receiving, unpacking, preparing incoming and outgoing condition reports, photographs, inventory control, dispersal and other record keeping, according to Cooper-Hewitt procedures. Observation Results I met the collections manager, Amy, for a tour of the collections facility. Accessing museums’ whole permanent collection is prohibited to general audience. So I asked a favor of the professional, and she accepted for limited area (not whole collections area) with her authority, but I couldn’t take any pictures due to the security problems. Instead of any collections pictures, she took me to the registrar’s office, so here are (above) the photos, organized files, and documents on the shelf. While we were in the office, somebody brought his art works (three dimensional works) for a future exhibition. As the works were delivered they were recorded first in the exhibit ledger (a book in which the momentary transactions of a business are posted) and were assigned T. D. (temporary deposit) numbers. Information was recorded in the exhibition ledger such as date delivered, medium etc. Condition reports were also completed at the time of delivery. Amy mentioned that especially majority of the design museum’s collection are three- dimensional objects. Since it’s harder to carry out than two-dimensional objects like paintings or drawings, we need to take photos in each sides and angles, and save them in the computer as a database, and then share the images for staff meetings or external accessibility. She introduced the database called, The Museum System (TMS). The Museum System (TMS) The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s collections manager, Amy, said the museum uses The Museum System (TMS) for the cataloging of paintings, sculpture, drawings, and prints. TMS is a relational database used to manage hundreds of museums and cultural and scientific collections worldwide. TMS can be used to catalogue and manage a diverse range of

102 objects, from decorative crafts to costumes, maps and frescoes. Amy said that many museum registrars, curators, conservators, and administrators have recently begun to use this system to manage their collections in computer databases. And excellent capability of this TMS is that it enables local and international museums to share the information (collections). As Zorich (1977) asserted, a chief advantage of digital databases for museum staff is “greater accessibility to world wide collections” (p.180). Before the TMS, the museum had no access to detailed information about the collections of other museums because such information is stored in a museum's own facility and access is prohibited except to the staff. Since this computer-based TMS has been developed, the Cooper-Hewitt can now easily access other museum collections and even request loans of works for exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt. Thus, the TMS has enabled museums to share collections for exhibitions that nurture their publics. Interview Highlights and Results Clara is a collections registrar who is responsible for creating, organizing, and maintaining orderly forms, legal documents, files, and retrieval systems associated with the following: acquisition, accessioning, cataloging, loans, packing, shipping, inventory, insurance, and storage, pursuant to the care, custody, and control of the objects in perpetuity (Edson & Dean, 1996) in the museum. She has been working at the Cooper-Hewitt for two-and-a-half years. She has Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree and a certificate in museum studies. Her primary role is as the collections registrar. She manages the permanent collection, meaning that she processes acquisitions, assigns numbers to objects, tracks inventory, processes deaccessions, and serves as secretary for the collections committee to make sure that procedures are properly followed. A large part of her job is also to serve as systems administrator for the collections database called The Museum System (TMS). Her role is to maintain data standards, that is, make sure the data is entered consistently, and to teach users how to use the system. Because of a lack of adequate tech support, Clara is forced to handle many technical questions from other staff members. Additionally, she helps the other Registrar with exhibitions and loans as needed. When I asked her about the nature, purposes, and functions of a design museum, Clara replied, It depends on the museum’s mission: it may be to inform the public about the history of design, the technical aspect of design, the role design plays in everyday life, etc. I think

103 that any of these are valid, but it is really important to define your mission statement and to use the mission statement to inform choices you make regarding programming, collecting, and publications (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). Her response led me to wonder about a design museum’s mission in its community. I asked her about this and she replied, Again, I think it can vary, but should be defined by the institution. I think education is a key component to any museum’s mission, but I also think it’s important, if you have a collection, to act as a collections steward. If a museum has a collection, it is preserving that collection for the public and should take that role seriously (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). In the same way that Bonnie emphasized education, Clara pointed out that the key component in a design museum’s mission is education. I asked her about the administrative policies of the Cooper-Hewitt, and she explained, Being part of the Smithsonian, and therefore part of the federal government, they are too numerous to list. For the collection, we have a variety of documents: the collections management policy, the collecting plan (which we are just beginning to draft), the acquisitions strategy (again, rudimentary form), and SD600, which is a Smithsonian directive covering collections (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). I asked Clara about the “role of organizational structure, collection/cataloging, display/exhibitions, preservation, education, and public support in achieving the mission of your museum. Again, she explained, The mission statement should be the governing principle of the museum, so it should inform all aspects of the museum, including the organizational structure. Everyone should understand the mission and their role in fulfilling that role. Each department, while having its own role, should be part of the whole. Public support is obviously key, as it provides the popular and financial support necessary to keep the doors open. It’s important to serve the community, and defining what community is served by each exhibition/program/publication is important—it should be part of the collecting plan, for example (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). “What is the organizational structure of your museum? Who's responsible for what?” I asked. As she deals with all the museum documents, Clara explained more accurately about the

104 organizational structure. According to Clara, We have a fairly complicated organizational structure, again largely due to the fact that we’re part of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian has a Board of Regents, which is similar to a Board of Trustees, the Secretary, and the Under-Secretary for the Art Museums (in order of precedence). There’s also an Office of General Counsel that has to approve many actions…Within Cooper-Hewitt itself, we have a Board of Trustees, a Director, then a Curatorial Director, to whom the Registrar reports. Cooper-Hewitt is fairly hierarchical—we generally do not interact directly with the Director, but instead feed information to him through the Curatorial Director. The Curatorial Director is part of Senior Staff, which includes the Deputy Director, the Director of Communications, and Director of Education…For collections, we also have a Collections Committee, who have to approve every acquisition and deaccession. The Committee is comprised of external members (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). I wanted to hear more about Clara's day-to-day practice. I asked her to explain what she does at Cooper-Hewitt and to give me an example of a recent project. Her answer suggested that a great deal of documenting occurs in her work, and often much more than the curatorial department realizes: For the most part, I work on the database for a good portion of the day. My work may be data scrubbing, working on data standards, writing reports, creating records, etc. My work on acquisitions varies depending on the time of year—I spend a lot of time on them right before and after a collections committee meeting, and at the end of the year. For example, we have recently begun traveling exhibitions, so we are struggling with how best to utilize the database for this purpose. I have been writing reports and meeting the curatorial departments to try and understand what is needed to make the process smoother for them (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). I asked Clara to explain a bit more about the educational role of design museums. She answered, I think that design is easily recognizable by the public, as it deals in large part with objects that we use everyday. In that way, it’s much easier for people to understand than, for example, modern art. However, because the objects are utilitarian in many ways, it’s sometimes harder to make people think in a new way about them. It’s important to

105 convey why something represents good design (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). I wondered about the design standards to which they were required to adhere. I asked Clara about them, and she explained, We generally try to adhere to the standards established by the American Association of Museums. The Smithsonian is pretty good at trying to uphold these standards, although the SI as a whole lacks the manpower to adequately fulfill all the standards (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). Clara' answer was consistent with that of Bonnie, who said much the same thing when I asked her about the standards established by the American Association of Museums. Soon I had changed the subject. I wanted to tap into Clara' sense of the best thing about design museums. Clara thought, and said, I like that the objects in our collection and in our exhibitions have generally made life better for people. Design is such an important part of life, and it’s really important to see and understand good design and translate that into everyday life (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). Finally, I wondered what Clara would change about her job or about design museum practices in general, if she could. Clara replied, I think there’s an alarming trend in museums in general (not just design museums) to undercut the importance of scholarship and of stewardship of the collection. I think this has been largely driven by the increasing difficulty and competitiveness of securing funding, which is a very big concern. However, I think that, ultimately, the objects are the basis of the museum, and it is key to adequately care for them (Clara, personal communication, July 21, 2006). According to Clara, at the Cooper-Hewitt, the primary rationale for collecting is to develop a body of visual and intellectual material that documents and interprets the history and process of design. Initial concepts and ideas (drawings, sketches, models, and prototypes) are represented in the collections, as are applications of various materials and techniques, the uses of pattern, motif, or other aesthetic properties for visual communication, and examples of context or function, including solutions to design problems, as well as documentation of customs, rituals, and patterns of behavior among diverse societies and cultures, both historic and contemporary.

106 Unique handmade objects, studio crafts, and mass-produced or machine-made objects are given equal consideration. The primary focus of the collection is on Western European and American production. Material from other cultures is collected for its relationships in form, pattern, or technique. Interpretive Summary The primary rationale for collecting design-related items is to develop a body of visual and intellectual material that documents and interprets the history and process of design. Initial concepts and ideas (drawings, sketches, models, and prototypes) have to be represented in the collections, just as the application of materials and techniques, the use of pattern, motif, or other aesthetic properties for visual communication, and examples of context or function, including solutions to design problems, as well as documentation of customs, rituals, and patterns of behavior among diverse societies and cultures, both historic and contemporary. Thus, based on my observations and interviews I learned that as part of a mission that aims to explore the impact of design, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum collects examples of design and cares for a permanent collections of objects, research material, and associated archives that are available for study through exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and direct examination. One of the differences between general art museums and design museums is seen in their collections. The collections in design museums deal with our daily lives, the space we shape, and the ways we communicate while general art museums are spaces for the exhibition of art, usually visual art, and usually primarily paintings and sculpture (Yelavich, 1997). In other words, the collections can be considered in light of their part in the landscape of daily life, in shaping the spaces in which those days are passed, and in framing our communications. Thus, the museum collects the tools of design and the documents of designer’s ideas as well as the designs themselves. The primary focus of the collection at the Cooper-Hewitt is on Western European and American production. Material from other cultures is collected for its relationships in terms of form, pattern, or technique. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has a policy document that sets forth regulations for the creation, maintenance, care, and use of the records for such objects. The document also contains the policies for accessions to the collection, for incoming and outgoing

107 loans of objects, and for maintaining inventory control. Importantly, it specifies the circumstances and methods of deaccessioning objects from the collection, and states the Museum’s policy concerning access to collections objects and records. In addition, it recognizes the dual goals of access and accountability. The accessioned collections of design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum are the foundation for the Museum's programs and a vehicle through which the Museum carries out its mission to educate the public. The areas of concentration in these collections are product design and decorative arts, textiles, wallcoverings, and drawings, prints, and graphic design. The Cooper-Hewitt's collections are expanded and enriched by selectively building on existing strengths, by filling gaps in collections of technical, material, stylistic, historic, or contextual significance, and, in special instances, by introducing and pursuing new areas of collecting. Current and future collections development also is detailed in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum collecting policy. The distinct evaluation of the intellectual, social, material, technical, and visual significance of an object is involved in any decision for it to be accessioned. Five major considerations are germane to any discussion concerning acquisitions: 1) concept or original idea, 2) design elements, 3) materials and techniques, 4) function and/or use, 5) importance of object in history of design. In order to be added to a collection at the Cooper-Hewitt, an object must meet each of the following criteria: 1) The appropriateness of an object to the scope of the collection, 2) The potential of an object for exhibition and/or study, 3) The condition of an object and whether it is within the capabilities of the museum's conservation resources to provide necessary care, 4) the museum's capability to store an object, 5) the possibility of achieving satisfactory resolution of copyright, trademark, or other restrictions on use or ownership, 6) the acceptability of an object's provenance. Educational Policy and Management Document Analysis/Results The Phenomenon of Design Education According to Christine, the director of the education department, high schools that offer an academic emphasis in architecture and design are starting to appear in cities across the United States. Schools of fine art have been common since the magnet school concept was introduced

108 several decades ago, but the appearance of schools of design is a relatively recent phenomenon. Why start a school of design? It may be that the importance of design in enhancing economic growth and quality of life is beginning to enter the public consciousness. Cover stories about design have begun appearing in the popular press, major corporations like Apple and MTV are leveraging innovative design to create hugely successful products and ad campaigns, and business consultants from Tom Peters to Daniel Pink have included chapters in their recent books about the relevance of design for success in business today. Rayala (2005) has noted that Miami’s Design and Architecture Senior High School (DASH), at fifteen years old, and Philadelphia’s Charter High School for Architecture and Design (CHAD), at six, are the oldest schools of their kind in the country. New Design High in (2003) and Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design in Brooklyn (2004) were launched most recently, and design education advocates in Chicago and Cincinnati are currently deciding whether to start similar schools. As more students see the potential to mold their own futures through the introduction of design concepts and processes in high school, the potential for improving the quality of both life and education through schools of design seems very promising. Christine insisted that when students are engaged in the process of designing, they are learning to observe, identify needs, seek and frame problems, work collaboratively, explore solutions, weigh alternatives, and communicate their ideas verbally and visually. The design process includes periods for self-assessment, critiques of works in progress, revisions, and opportunities for reflection. The direction for young schools of design is usually to teach “through design” (using design to support learning in other areas) rather than “about design,” (approaching design as a cluster of autonomous disciplines) although the latter is an important goal in many programs. Types of Educational Programs and Their Characteristics According to Christine, the Cooper-Hewitt’s dynamic educational programs provide insights into the ways in which design shapes our lives every day, encouraging us to understand how design can be used to shape a better world. Many of the Museum’s programs present “design” as a verb, as audiences are engaged in the design process, often working closely with professional designers and design resources. School programs demonstrate the potential for design to enhance teaching and learning across the K–12 curricula and throughout the

109 community. Programs such as the Cooper-Hewitt's Summer Design Institute and A City of Neighborhoods program have become models for design education in schools and communities across the United States. Such programs encourage students and teachers to see themselves as designers in their own right as they engage in the design process through active observation, discussion, strategies for visual communication, and critique. Below I describe the two programs that I referenced above, using descriptions from their brochures. A City of Neighborhoods. A City of Neighborhoods is a community-based design education and advocacy program for youth, educators, designers, and civic leaders working with young people developed by the Cooper-Hewitt. Its mission is to foster civic engagement, recognizing the right of all citizens, especially young people, to be involved in the design of their neighborhoods. The program applies design education to a neighborhood context, providing access to primary resources (architecture, streetscapes, maps, and historic and cultural materials) in order to explore a neighborhood's past, analyze its present, and plan for its future. A City of Neighborhoods was created by architects and designers and modeled on their own experiences with the design process. The program mirrors the stages in the design process, supported by a variety of community- and project-based strategies. The following three stages of the workshop form the necessary steps in translating the design process into successful civic action. Some of the activities that may be included in any workshop are described below. 1. Learning to See - Identifying and describing the “experience of place” using a visual vocabulary, walking tours, sketching, photography, writing, and activities for synthesizing sensory impressions.

z Place Memory Activity- Participants create a representation of a powerful memory of a place. Participants introduce themselves using this description/story, showing and describing the characteristics of that place, which make it important in their memory.

z Learning to See Slideshow- Participants are introduced to the “elements of form” that make up the language of design, and are asked to consider the choices that designers and communities make and how these choices are reflected in the architecture, urban planning, and landscaping of a place.

z Walking Tour Objectives and Orientation- Participants break into teams to become oriented to the walking tour objectives. Team members assign roles and familiarize

110 themselves with equipment, materials, and maps.

z Neighborhood Exploration/Walking Tour and Lunch- Participants are asked to use all five senses and the elements of form from the morning’s slideshow to discover the character of the neighborhood. Participants record the design and architectural elements that give the neighborhood its unique sense of place by: taking Polaroids, answering prompt questions, collecting artifacts, making texture rubbings, conducting interviews.

z Sensory Collage- What was your experience of this place? Using the information and resources collected and experienced in the walk, participants organize their findings into a visual presentation to share with the rest of the group. 2. Understanding Change Over Time - Analyzing historical maps and photographs, presentations by guest speakers, discussions involving community panels, and researching literature and written materials.

z Historic Layering Activity- Knowing a neighborhood’s past is critical to understanding its present. Participants are asked to consider what the past and present forces of change have been. Using maps, narratives, municipal records, and photographs, they add another layer of historical context to the neighborhood collage.

z Using Historic Photographs- Writing from historic photographs allows time for reflection on how everyday life in the neighborhood has changed over time. It also allows for imagining alternative living conditions. When considering life in the past, participants gain perspective, clarity, and insight that inform their knowledge of the current situation.

z Neighborhood Panel Discussion- While meeting with representatives from community groups, participants assess the importance of perspective on a community’s evolution.

z Defining Design Criteria Discussion- Examining current social, economic, and environmental issues, participants begin to formulate design solutions for the neighborhood. Teams form around common concerns and project parameters are discussed. 3. Designing for Change - Using information gathered about the past and present to

111 develop proposals for the future by ideas, interviewing community members, analyzing project sites, sketching designs, building models, presenting and critiquing proposals, and planning for future community action.

z Brainstorming and Sketching Activity- Teams focus on a site or topic of concern, and brainstorm ideas, go back to their site for sketching, interviews, and observing behaviors, sketch ideas and plans on base map, Start Building! Participants build 3- D models of their ideas for positive community change.

z Team Presentations of Models and Plans- Each team presents and explains its project to a jury, to be followed by critique, discussions, and evaluations by the group and community members. The ultimate goal is to author a community-based project that participants can continue to advocate for and act upon after the workshop, as well as feel confident sharing with youth, in and outside of the classroom.

z Designing an Action Plan - Develop activities for integration into home communities or curricula with clear learning objectives, defined resources, and activities appropriate for young people. Develop strategies for implementation and assessment methods. Create projects that can build on partnerships between teachers, youth providers, architects, planners, preservationists, and other community contacts. The goal of A City of Neighborhoods workshop is to help participants develop strategies and designs to take back to their schools, community groups, and other institutions. These designs will reflect each participant’s unique situation, and engage and empower community members to advocate for their needs and aspirations. The Summer Design Institute. For one week every summer at the Cooper-Hewitt, educators and designers are invited to join an international roster of renowned designers and design educators as they share strategies for engaging K-12 students in the design process. Summer Design Institute (SDI) features workshops, master classes, studio visits, and keynote presentations that connect the school curriculum beyond the classroom. Christine, director of the education department, explained that the theme of the SDI is always “Best Practices in Design Education,” and sub-themes included the built environment, technology and innovation, working with adolescent audiences, and experiences from the

112 classroom. Participants at the institute learn ways to promote innovation, critical thinking, visual literacy, and problem-solving across the K-12 curriculum. They share activities for engaging K- 12 students in the design process. They work with advisors to develop action plans and strategies for classroom implementation and alternative assessment methods. Most importantly, they experience how architectural, environmental, product, graphic, and media design can enhance the teaching of mathematics, science, environmental studies, language arts, history, and art. I will describe more about this program in the observation section later. Master’s program in the history of decorative arts and design. The Cooper-Hewitt also offers a two-year master's degree program in conjunction with the Parsons/New School of Design (Yelavich, 1997). The degree leads graduates to careers at museums, historic houses, galleries, appraisal firms, magazines and publishing, auction houses, and universities. The curriculum offers courses in the media of ceramics, costume, furniture, glass, graphic design, metalwork, textiles, and works on paper. These courses go beyond connoisseurship to address a wide range of issues in the decorative arts and design including social, economic, and cultural history, critical theory, style, and techniques. The master's program focuses on the history of European and American decorative arts and design from the Renaissance to the present. The unique character of the program is defined by its location within the Cooper-Hewitt, the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historical and contemporary design. Located in the landmark Andrew Carnegie Mansion on Museum Mile, it has encyclopedic collections of European and American furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, architectural and ornamental drawings and prints, textiles, wall coverings, and graphic and industrial design. In addition, the Museum boasts the premier design library in the United States, with a collection of 55,000+ books and periodicals related to the history of design, as well as extensive holdings of trade catalogs and archives of African- American, Latino-Hispanic, and American designers. The courses emphasize object-based teaching, utilizing museum collections. The curriculum is enriched by privileged connections to the contemporary design exhibitions of the Museum and the extensive holdings of the Library. Students have the opportunity to work in the Cooper-Hewitt’s four curatorial departments: Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design; Product Design and Decorative Arts; Textiles; and Wall Coverings. Teaching experience is gained through assistantships in the undergraduate program at Parsons School of Design. The experience of graduate school in a professional setting facilitates

113 the transition from academic training to career. The most noticeable point of the master’s program is its special concentration in Contemporary , introducing students to critical models of analysis from a range of scholarly disciplines and to emerging issues in design, such as sustainability and urban ecology. The professionals who serve as teachers for the master’s program are curators at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, specialists at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and distinguished scholars, critics, and teachers of decorative arts and design history (Yelavich, 1997). particular Observations Results

Figure 21. The 2006 Summer Design Institute Group Picture I observed and participated in one of their feature programs, called the Summer Design Institute (SDI) to see how their education program works for design education. It was annually held once in summer for a week. In July, 2006, the SDI invited twenty teachers from around the country - and me - to receive training on best practices for integrating design in the classroom and on Cooper-Hewitt design resources. The hope is that these teachers will share their experiences with others and create

114 design-focused lesson plans and activities aligned to the National Standards for all grade ranges that will be officially launched nationwide during National Design Week. To evaluate the effectiveness of this content, Cooper-Hewitt will follow these teachers as they integrate these lessons in their own classrooms. As a participant, I was able to observe their practice closely, adding a great deal to my research. Each day started with coffee at 8:30 a.m., and a keynote address by a famous design educator; the afternoon session continued with relevant and meaningful activities. On the first day, presenter Anna Slafer, director of Exhibitions & Programs at the International Spy Museum, discussed design. Slafer has over twenty years of experience developing and managing educational programs at institutions that address history, design, and the environment. For over ten years she served as the founding curator of education at the National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C. Her previous positions include work for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, the Los Angeles Children’s Museum. She discussed why it is important to educate students about design, what the “art” of design is, what the cognitive basis for our ability to design is, what design education activity involves, how design can make an educator’s life easier, what the design process is, and how to do it. She noted that design awareness and design ability are inherent capacities of all human beings, and that designed objects are tangible expressions of human choices and values. When we make designs, we make decisions that reflect our personal, social, political, aesthetic, and economic desires. In essence, they reflect our ideas, ideals, and our compromises. The purpose of design education is to provide a framework for teaching young people the skills they need to become active participants in planning and shaping their world. Her message was exactly what I was thinking and searching for in the literature review for my study. I was very impressed by this first presenter’s thoughts and found that I strongly agreed with her. I also attended a workshop conducted by Erin, entitled, "Communications Design Workshop." Lupton is a writer, curator, and graphic designer. She is both director of the MFA program in graphic design at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt. Erin’s goal for the participants in her workshop was to experience the power of design as a publishing tool. Compared to Anna Slafer’s discussion, Lupton's lecture was more practical than theoretical. She explained that graphic design is a tool for turning ideas and research into content that can be published. She taught us

115 about image sharing, blogging, and publishing-on-demand. We used a readily available online tool, Design It Yourself (D.I.Y), to create a series of media products that are comparable to those that might be produced in a classroom. Throughout the week and during the workshop, we created an image collection on Flickr.com that could be accessed on-line by the entire SDI group. The image-sharing Websites are a lot like the picture-management tools that people use on their desktop computers, with one major difference: the images are online and can be shared with other users. We used Blogspot.com to develop blogs based on content and ideas generated during the SDI week. Blogs are used by single authors and by groups to make and share content. A blog doesn’t have to consist of personal essays or random thoughts about your bellybutton. It can be used to document the progress of a group or individual project, explore a specific subject area, present a portfolio of visual or written work, or serve as an on-line sketchbook or idea book. How might we use blogging in the classroom? We could create a portfolio of student work, and ask all students to comment on two or more classmates’ work in writing. Or, we could create a forum on a topic (in any subject area) and students would be responsible for generating posts as well as commenting, documenting the progress of a group project that takes place over time. Lupton's last comment stayed with me: “Design is a skill but is an art form.” There were a variety of programs provided by the education department at the Cooper- Hewitt. Programs are developed for a variety of purposes: to complement the museum's exhibitions, to provide access to the museum's collections, to celebrate important designers, past and present, and to explore major issues relevant to design and design history. Program formats included exhibition tours, conferences, lectures, panels, collections study programs, design studio visits, regional day trips, workshops, and national and international study tours. Programs are often developed in partnership with other academic and cultural institutions, professional organization, and corporations to create cross-fertilization and reflect diverse professional perspectives. Interview Highlights/Results According to the education department director, Christine, staff members always seek to use a constructivist approach to their work in order to ensure that their education program is an expression of youth. Constructivism is a theory that approaches learning as something best achieved through an active, learner-centered process (Hooper-Greenhill, 2000; Jeffery-Clay,

116 1998; Soren, 2004a). Constructivists would argue that people learn by building up, or constructing, new ideas and concepts based on their prior knowledge and experience. In social constructivist thinking, learners are active and adapt to the world by forming and reforming categories and structures that work to explain the phenomenal world and allow the learner to interact with it effectively (O’Connor, 1998). Constructivism also refers to providing a sort of scaffolding for individuals in the form of specific learning activities or instructional strategies. Hein (1998) describes constructivist exhibitions as opportunities for learners "to use both their hands and minds, to interact with the world, to manipulate it, to reach conclusions, experiment, and increase their understanding or ability to make generalizations about the phenomena with which they engage" (p. 34). To investigate how the staff applied constructivist theory in their education programs, I interviewed the director of the education department, Christine. I began my interview with Christine, the director of the education department, with a question about her educational background, position, and number of years in her job. She replied, “I’ve been here with this job for a year and one week. That can be exact. I’m the director of the education department here. This is my first job in a museum. I’ve never worked at a museum before. My education is that I went to a liberal arts, 4- year college, Sarah Lawrence, and then went to graduate school at the Johns Hopkins University. I hold a master’s degree from the writing seminars program. And most of time after graduate school, I was at the Parsons School of Design for 11 years where I was an associate dean of the school of liberal arts. After that, I worked for 4 years at Maryland Public Television. I was formerly director of educational services at Maryland Public Television, where I oversaw a 10 million-dollar grant to create “Thinkport,” an online, interactive education super-site for the state of Maryland. I have also led a number of education initiatives using interactive and web-based resources to improve reading instruction, distance learning courses, and school curricula. I built educational websites for teachers, also worked with professional development for websites with all media that was produced. So here, I get to work with design, but also work towards a Website that I get to create the content for, so it’s sort of a nice combination of both jobs in this museum (Christine, personal communication, July 17, 2006).

117 I asked Christine to describe, from her point of view, the nature, purposes, and functions of a design museum. She offered her opinion: Design museums need to introduce them to people in some ways, what design is. The website is important tool to explain what design is, why important, objects that are on displayed are. And I’d agree with Erin, from her lecture yesterday, that design is what people use everyday life. We also need to put contents in objects, so people could understand them. Design is object that people use (Christine, personal communication, July 17, 2006). I asked Christine to describe her job: "Are there other aspects to what you do that should be included in your job description but aren't? Is there anything you do that should be done by someone else?” Hahaha…As director of the education department, everything from the content of docents, tours, programs, outreach teachers, contents of website are all my job. My job is about how people can understand this museum - anyone from students, teachers, anyone coming off of the street. This is pretty much what I am expected to do. I don’t feel like someone has to do part of my job. And most of the time, I’m very satisfied with my job. Only one year and a week (Christine, personal communication, July 17, 2006). I asked Christine to help me get a sense of her day-to-day practice by describing a recent project. She provided an example: The SDI [Summer Design Institute] takes a lot of day to day work to do. My job is about determining overall structure, participants who will come, who should be invited for lectures, the goals we want to have, you know. About the SDI, we changed the structure a lot. The reason for the change is, previously we had bigger institutes, but after the program was finished, we couldn’t track them easily because they’re too many, so we couldn’t hear from them how well they integrated the material in their classes after engaging with the program we provided. Small groups can go with a deeper training, and then they can spread them out when they return to their schools. We also can track how they use the data to teach their students more effectively. That’s why we changed it (Christine, personal communication, July 17, 2006). I asked about the educational role of design museums, and for an example of this role in action. Christine explained,

118 I think you just saw in our practice that we not only educate people who come in our door, but also through our websites we can help teachers to integrate [their learning] in their classrooms. Not just art teachers, as you saw, but science teachers, math teachers, English teachers, to see the design to be a good centerpiece to any discipline (Christine, personal communication, July 17, 2006). When I asked her what is the best thing about design museums, she replied, “The staff is so good.” Christine also expressed how happy she is to work at the Cooper-Hewitt and that she is satisfied with the entire system there. Christine's attitude about the Cooper-Hewitt mirrored that of the other employees I interviewed at the Cooper-Hewitt. She, like others who work at the museum, seems very happy to be employed there. No one really complained about anything related to the organization system of the museum. The environment at the museum seems to make the staff happy; in fact, all the staff members who I met commented about how nice they are to each other. Interpretive Summary The education department at the Cooper-Hewitt utilizes a constructivist approach to ensure that its education program effectively communicates with its learners. Constructivism is a theory that views learning as an active, learner-centered process (Hooper-Greenhill, 2000; Jeffery-Clay, 1998; Soren, 2004a). It holds that people learn by building up, or constructing, new ideas and concepts based on their prior knowledge and experience. In social constructivist thinking, learners are active, and adapt to the world by forming and reforming categories and structures that work to explain the phenomenal world and allow the learner to interact with it effectively (O’Connor, 1998). Hein (1998) describes constructivist exhibitions as opportunities for learners "to use both their hands and minds, to interact with the world, to manipulate it, to reach conclusions, experiment, and increase their understanding or ability to make generalizations about the phenomena with which they engage" (p. 34). Ultimately, the education department at the Cooper-Hewitt enables the general public, educators, and youth audiences to better understand design and its influence on our lives through its programs and courses. The department provides quality programs that engage school audiences in the design process—developing such skills as active observation, critical discussion, strategies for visual communication, and critique. The department partners with K-12 classroom teachers to bring design into the classroom to enhance the study of other disciplines, such as

119 history, language arts, and science, ultimately increasing academic performance and connecting school curriculum to real life issues and experiences. The department promotes innovative thinking, visual literacy, problem solving, and leadership and communication skills through design education. Department director Christine insisted that when students are engaged in the process of designing, they are learning to observe, identify needs, seek and frame problems, work collaboratively, explore solutions, weigh alternatives, and communicate their ideas verbally and visually. The design process includes periods for self-assessment, critiques of works in progress, revisions, and opportunities for reflection. The direction for young schools of design is usually to teach “through design” (using design to support learning in other areas) rather than “about design,” in which design is approached as a cluster of autonomous disciplines, although this is an important goal in many programs. We make design decisions that reflect our personal, social, political, aesthetic, and economic desires. As such, they reflect our ideas, ideals, and our compromises. The purpose of design education is to provide a framework for teaching young people the skills they need to become active participants in planning and shaping their world. The first section set the basis for understanding the museum's organizational structure in its institutional context. The nature of a design museum's role was defined and its mission statement, committee structure, and staff roles were explicated. The second section dealt with exhibition management. The role of the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition staff is to have highly directed, refined, and executed learning environments. The exhibition department's overarching goal is to have an exhibition program that is consistent with the design museum’s mission and that provides for a diversity of historical design periods and styles and a wide variety of design topics. The third section provided findings related to collections management. The primary focus of the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt is on Western European and American production. Material from other cultures is collected for its relationships to these in form, pattern, or technique. Under the museum's primary mission, that is, to explore the impact of design, the Cooper-Hewitt collects examples of design and cares for a permanent collection of objects, research material, and associated archives. The fourth section provides findings from the study of the education department

120 management. Using a constructivist approach, the education department provides the means for people to understand design and its influence on our lives through exciting programs and courses about design for the general public, educators, and youth audiences. The department provides quality programs that engage school audiences in the design process—developing such skills as active observation, critical discussion, strategies for visual communication, and critique. In the previous sections of this chapter, the roles and functions of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum were examined by division. First, the institutional context in which the museum was founded and operated was examined in terms of its physical setting and cultural/historical and political/administrative structure, in order to establish the foundation for this study. Then in the following sections a description and interpretation of the findings were presented, based on the research questions set for the study. Summary A review of this chapter should demonstrate that design museums can play a central role in studying and representing what to portray, what to educate, and what to collect, in relation to design works. The knowledge acquired through this study can be incorporated into the development of design museums. Each department has to try to strike a balance between the its programming for audiences in light of the realistic allocation of resources and efforts. Improving communication is one way to enhance better flow and exchange of information and ideas in the institution. Many staff members at the Cooper-Hewitt believed that the museum would benefit from more open channels of communication, larger and more frequent planning meetings, and the involvement of professional design educators from outside the museum in important decision making processes within the institution. In particular, the inclusion of design educators on the exhibition committee would be important in making design education an institution-wide concern and creating practices that enhance design education, exhibition, and collections. The design museum must of necessity focus firmly on the present and the future. That said, it is likewise a place for memories. Thus, design museum exhibitions have to look back to the past as well as forward to the future and embrace stylistic trends and currents, and aesthetics and ideas behind good design.

121 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS

Introduction Museums are precious institutions that define, record, and sustain civilization (Kotler & Kotler, 1998). Within the context of this assumption, this study involved an exploration of the role and function of one particular design museum, using the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum as an exemplar. A qualitative approach to the research questions was employed involving document analysis, observation, and interview. This chapter contains thematic interpretation drawn from document analysis, observation, and interview, and final discussion of general themes for the best practice of design museums, and suggestions for further research. The research question posed in this study is: What are the best practices of the Cooper- Hewitt National Design Museum as seen by selected stakeholders in relation to its: (a) organizational structure, (b) collection strategies, (c) function of physical space, (d) public support and collaboration, and (e) display techniques? Results and Interpretation for Prefigured Foci Focus 1: Organizational Structure The scale of the design museum’s vision, to serve the United States in a national role and to explore the impact of design are what makes the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum distinctive from other museums. Serving the nation and design are the unique, exemplary roles a national design museum can and should play, guiding every aspect of policy and practice of design museums. The key vision of the Cooper-Hewitt is clearly articulated in its mission statement, which tells us that the museum seeks to explore the impact of design on everyday life. It presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming. Located in New York City, a major center of commerce and culture in the U.S., the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is visited by about five million people each year. In addition to the visitors, the museum reaches distant audiences beyond its walls through educational services such as extension programs and its Internet Website. In all, the museum’s audience is extremely diverse, ranging from local to national to international in terms of

122 geographic distance, and from pre-K through senior citizen in terms of age. In terms of its impact on individuals' careers, students are expected to benefit from its resources and aesthetic experience, professional designers are expected to use the new and established works displayed by the museum as a source of inspiration, companies and manufacturers are expected to benefit from the public exposure of their products, as well as obtain innovative strategies and ideas that lend themselves to branding products, creating innovation to boost competitiveness and enhancing the appreciation of other exhibitions in the design museum. The organizational structure of the Cooper-Hewitt is well woven into the current structure. All committee members, including the board of trustees, executive officers, and professional staff at the museum are fully aware of devoted to, and proud of this expectation for the museum. According to Edson and Dean (1996), more complicated museum management structures typically include a cadre of workers; however, duties are divided along the same lines as any basic museum structure. There is a tendency for the operational structure of the organizations and institutions of a nation to reflect the prevailing tendencies of different social structures, concepts of business, and levels of development. Whatever the structure, the personnel should correspond to the needs of the museum and its stated mission. The integrity of the Cooper-Hewitt's holdings is a primary value, and curators, archivists, registrars, and administrative personnel consider the interrelationships among holdings and integration of records to be very important. All departments are expected to cooperate in fulfilling the mission of the museum, most especially the curatorial, collections, exhibition, and the education departments. Fundraising, publicity, and finance departments all support exhibitions, collections, and education programs. Among the staff, there is a recognition that all these functions are crucial. Based on the concept that the mission of a design museum is to help the audience learn to recognize what design is and why and how it is important in daily life, all the Cooper-Hewitt staff adhere to this goal, and put their intensive efforts toward it. Each department has its own role in accomplishing the ultimate goal of the museum, which is to enhance public awareness of the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming. Focus 2: Collection Strategies Based on my observations and interviews I learned that as part of a mission that aims to explore the impact of design, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum collects examples of

123 design and cares for a permanent collections of objects, research material, and associated archives that are available for study through exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and direct examination. One of the differences between general art museums and design museums is seen in their collections. The collections in design museums deal with our daily lives, the space we shape, and the ways we communicate while general art museums are spaces for the exhibition of art, usually visual art, and usually primarily paintings and sculpture (Yelavich, 1997). In other words, the collections can be considered in light of their part in the landscape of daily life, in shaping the spaces in which those days are passed, and in framing our communications. Thus, the museum collects the tools of design and the documents of designer’s ideas as well as the designs themselves. The primary focus of the collection at the Cooper-Hewitt is on Western European and American production. Material from other cultures is collected for its relationships in terms of form, pattern, or technique. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has a policy document that sets forth regulations for the creation, maintenance, care, and use of the records for such objects. The document also contains the policies for accessions to the collection, for incoming and outgoing loans of objects, and for maintaining inventory control. Importantly, it specifies the circumstances and methods of deaccessioning objects from the collection, and states the Museum’s policy concerning access to collections objects and records. In addition, it recognizes the dual goals of access and accountability. The accessioned collections of design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum are the foundation for the Museum's programs and a vehicle through which the Museum carries out its mission to educate the public. The areas of concentration in these collections are product design and decorative arts, textiles, wallcoverings, and drawings, prints, and graphic design. The Cooper-Hewitt's collections are expanded and enriched by selectively building on existing strengths, by filling gaps in collections of technical, material, stylistic, historic, or contextual significance, and, in special instances, by introducing and pursuing new areas of collecting. Current and future collections development also is detailed in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum collecting policy.

124 Focus 3: Function of Physical Space The museum building, the former home of Andrew Carnegie, is located on Fifth Avenue and Ninety-First Street in New York City, on what is known as Museum Mile, it includes the Barbara Riley Levin Conservatory and the magnificent Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden. Just across from Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum, the museum's location provides many tourists with easy access. Two other famous museums, the Guggenheim and the National Academy of Design, are located just a block away. Thus, the museum is geographically located in an advantageous place. Big banners outside of the Cooper-Hewitt tell by passers what exhibition is currently installed, so car drivers and pedestrians alike might become interested. These banners are hung intentionally at same height as the eyes of those walking by rather than at the height of the wall outside. Inside the building, all the facilities are well located so visitors can easily access them. The admission desk is in the center of the main entrance, and after purchasing an admission ticket, one enters to the left, following the guide’s directions. It is there that the entire exhibition area waits for visitors. The floor plans of the building can be found in Appendix E. To the right is a gift shop where one can buy design objects or professional design reference books that are rarely found in the general bookstores. The gift shop is very big and the price arrangement of objects is wide. The museum also contains a research library containing 60,000 volumes. Collection has been housed in the Museum’s new Design Resource Center. Visitors can enter the Resource Center by appointment from the Museum through the Agnes Bourne Bridge Gallery and the Enid Wien Morse Garden Room. The Design Resource Center provides accessible study/storage areas for the collections. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is located in New York City, a major center of commerce and culture in the United States. Focus 4: Public Support and Collaboration To support public, the Cooper-Hewitt provides dynamic educational programs. They provide insights into the ways in which design shapes our lives every day, encouraging us to understand how design can be used to shape a better world. Many of the Museum’s programs present design as a verb, as audiences are engaged in the design process, often working closely with professional designers and design resources. School programs demonstrate the potential for

125 design to enhance teaching and learning across the K–12 curricula and throughout the community. Programs such as the Cooper-Hewitt's Summer Design Institute and A City of Neighborhoods program (See p. 138-142) have become models for design education in schools and communities across the United States. Such programs encourage students and teachers to see themselves as designers in their own right as they engage in the design process through active observation, discussion, strategies for visual communication, and critique. I described the detail of public education programs in the finding section. Focus 5: Display Techniques In order for museums to prepare an exhibition accurately and successfully, they need display techniques including a checklist outlining each of the stages of exhibition development. Exhibition development can be divided into four phases: a conceptual phase, a development phase, a functional phase, and an assessment phase (See Table 1). These phases and the steps within them may be organized in the form of an outline that makes specific activities and tasks more easily recognizable. By dividing into tasks the broader components in the exhibition’s development, the job becomes easier to plan. As indicated by the Table 1, the first decisions that lead to the development of an exhibition idea are made in the concept phase. Then, in the development phase, the curatorial director makes decisions about who to include and what disciplines and skills are required to get the job done. The functional phase encompasses the time when the exhibition is made available to the public and educational programs are offered. Important activities include security, maintenance, housekeeping, and periodic examinations of the exhibition. Finally, the evaluation phase concerns the assessment of the results. It provides a means of determining whether or not the goals set early in the process were met. In addition, the evaluation phase serves to point the way for future exhibitions, by suggesting ways to improve the process and the product. The calendar (See p. 88-95) is well organized and arranged in such a way as to avoid any mistakes in the huge exhibition process. This document will be very helpful to other design museums or any museum that is newly established. Emergent Themes/Generated Concepts Throughout this study, the finally generated concepts are below. The conceptual elements related to best practices in a design museum, including: 1) What to present in the design

126 museum, 2) What education to provide in the design museum, and 3) What to collect in the design museum. Theme 1: What to Present in a Design Museum The role and goal of design exhibitions. A design museum needs to adopt a clear process for creating its exhibitions about design. Such a process should create harmony among all the elements of the exhibition and reflect the nature of the design exhibition from the past to present, and even in the future. The role of the exhibition staff is to be highly creative, directed, refined, and focused on execution. The goal of any exhibition department should be to have an exhibition program that is consistent with the design museum’s mission and provides for a diversity of historical design periods and styles and a wide variety of design topics. In addition, all detailed work related to graphic design skills, like the checklist and exhibit labels, need to be produced perfectly. Thus, for example, great care needs to be taken in selecting the font style and typographical design associated with an exhibit. The role of curators. The chief curator/curatorial director and curator must field any proposals to ensure they are in line with the strategic vision and mission of the museum, combining both new scholarship on the subject and appeal to general audience. Visitor needs and interests can be incorporated through front-end evaluation and visitor studies. Exhibitions must be periodically reviewed and updated by the chief curator and the project team, and the budget updated as more accurate information is available. All exhibitions benefit greatly from such a review process. A concept review, which looks at all aspects of the exhibition from concepts to methods and means, should be paralleled by a strategic review, in which senior management consider the impact of the exhibition, including finances and marketing, from an institution-wide perspective. The curatorial director has to implement his/her philosophy in the design museum and the ideas need to work well in design exhibitions. The use of thematic exhibitions and cooperative installations, as well as a positive work attitude, are absolutely needed. Exhibition policy and guidelines. The design museum needs to set an overall exhibition policy, calendar, and guideline for stages of exhibition development, which is divided into four phases: the conceptual phase, the development phase, the functional phase, and the assessment phase. Such a process should be organized and arranged in such a way as to avoid mistakes within the huge exhibition process. When conceiving of such a process, it may help to

127 think in terms of a lifecycle, that is, from conception to end. It is vital that all those involved in the various stages of the exhibition have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, how their input fits into the overall process, and who has final say at any given stage. The description of this process needs to give the impression of linearity, while at the same time paying attention to any potentially divisive territorialism; therefore, it is useful to distinguish between project conceptualization and implementation. Interaction among departments. Implementation will fall to relevant departments or experts, though some may prefer to assign tasks to sub-groups of the project team. A small group of decision makers – such as the project team leaders – and member(s) of senior management monitor the progress of the exhibition and compliance with the stated purpose, schedule, and budget. Theme 2: What Education to Provide in a Design Museum The role of design education. Ultimately, a design museum needs to enable the general public, educators, and youth audiences to better understand design and its influence on our lives through its exciting programs and courses. Design museums need to provide quality programs that engage school audiences in the design process—developing such skills as active observation, critical discussion, strategies for visual communication, and critique. For example, partnering with K-12 classroom teachers to bring design into the classroom to enhance the study of other disciplines, such as history, language arts, and science, ultimately increases academic performance and connects a school curriculum to real life issues and experiences. Design museums need to promote innovative thinking, visual literacy, problem solving, and leadership and communication skills through design education. A constructivist approach. Design museums would do best to utilize a constructivist approach to ensure that their education programs effectively communicate with learners and to reflect the knowledge that people learn by building up, or constructing, new ideas and concepts based on their prior knowledge and experience. From a constructivist perspective, design educators need to approach learners as active, and adapt the design process to the world by forming and reforming categories and structures that work to explain the phenomenal world and allow the learner to interact with it effectively (O’Connor, 1998). This means creating possibilities for learners to use their hands and minds, to interact with the world, to manipulate it, to reach conclusions, experiment, and increase their understanding or ability to make

128 generalizations about the phenomena with which they engage. Effectiveness of the process of designing. When students are engaged in the process of designing, they are learning to observe, identify needs, seek and frame problems, work collaboratively, explore solutions, weigh alternatives, and communicate their ideas verbally and visually. The design process includes periods for self-assessment, critiques of works in progress, revisions, and opportunities for reflection. The direction for young schools of design is usually to teach “through design” (using design to support learning in other areas) rather than “about design,” in which design is approached as a cluster of autonomous disciplines. Such teaching through design is a useful approach for educators in design museums. Purpose of design education. We make design decisions that reflect our personal, social, political, aesthetic, and economic desires. As such, they reflect our ideas, ideals, and our compromises. The purpose of design education is to provide a framework for teaching young people the skills they need to become active participants in planning and shaping their world. Diverse programs for diverse audiences. The education division of a design museum should offer a wide array of programs to meet the design-related needs, interests, and learning styles of diverse audiences, ranging from local to national to international in terms of geographic distance, and from pre-K through senior citizens in terms of age. For example, in the case of tours for adults, design museums need to have docent-led introductory tours of the permanent collection, tours of special exhibitions, special appointment tours, VIP tours, foreign language tours, and self-guided tours using audio guides. Providing a wide variety of offerings to serve the diverse nature of national and international audiences is an important role and practice of an education department in the design museum. By interpreting works of design in a way that is meaningful to the general public and disseminating the knowledge and information in the education programs and publications, the education division enhances understanding of the design museum’s collection and special exhibitions. Theme 3: What to Collect in a Design Museum Rationale for collections of design work. What to collect in a design museum collection needs to be considered carefully before establishing a design museum. Design museums should be aware that the primary rationale for collecting design-related items in a design museum is to develop a body of visual and intellectual material that documents and

129 interprets the history and process of design. Initial concepts and ideas (drawings, sketches, models, and prototypes) have to be represented in the collections. Similarly, the design museum must illustrate for the public the application of materials and techniques, the use of pattern, motif, or other aesthetic properties for visual communication, as well as examples of context or function, including solutions to design problems and documentation of customs, rituals, and patterns of behavior among diverse societies and cultures, both historic and contemporary. Categorization and concentration areas of the collection. Categorizing the collection before you establish a design museum is critical. One of the most apparent differences between general art museums and design museums is seen in their collections. The areas of concentration in design museum collections are product design and decorative arts, textiles, wallcoverings, and drawings, prints, and graphic design, while in general art museums most space is designated for the exhibition of art, usually visual art, and usually primarily paintings and sculpture (Yelavich, 1997). In other words, in design museums the collections should be considered in light of their part in the landscape of daily life, in shaping the spaces in which those days are passed, and in framing our communications. The museum should collect the tools of design and the documents of designer’s ideas, as well as the designs themselves. Design museums need to set a primary focus for collections as well. For instance, the primary focus of the collection at the Cooper-Hewitt is on Western European and American production. Material from other cultures is collected for its relationships to such production in terms of form, pattern, or technique. In order to explore the impact of design throughout time and in various cultures, the Cooper-Hewitt collects examples of design and cares for a permanent collection of objects, research material, and associated archives that is available for study through exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and direct examination. Access and accountability - the collections policy. A collections policy document that sets forth regulations for the creation, maintenance, care, and use of the records for such objects is needed. The document should also contain the policies for accessions to the collection, for incoming and outgoing loans of objects, and for maintaining inventory control. Importantly, it should specify the circumstances and methods of deaccessioning objects from the collection, and state the museum’s policy concerning access to collections objects and records. In addition, such policies should recognize the dual goals of access and accountability. Accessioned collections in design are the foundation for the Museum's programs and a

130 vehicle through which the Museum carries out its mission to educate the public. In design museums, collections need to be expanded and enriched by selectively building on existing strengths, by filling gaps in collections of technical, material, stylistic, historic, or contextual significance, and, in special instances, by introducing and pursuing new areas of collections. Current and future collections development should also be detailed in the collecting policy. The distinct evaluations of the intellectual, social, material, technical, and visual significance of an object is needed prior to being accessioned. Five major considerations are germane to any discussion concerning acquisitions: 1) concept or original idea, 2) design elements, 3) materials and techniques, 4) function and/or use, 5) importance of object in history of design. In order to be added to the collection of a design museum, an object should meet each of the following criteria: 1) The appropriateness of an object to the scope of the collection, 2) The potential of an object for exhibition and/or study, 3) The condition of an object and whether it is within the capabilities of the museum's conservation resources to provide necessary care, 4) the museum's capability to store an object, 5) the possibility of achieving satisfactory resolution of copyright, trademark, or other restrictions on use or ownership, 6) the acceptability of an object's provenance. In the course of this study, I examined how a paradigmatic American design museum is structured and generated a grounded theory of that museum. Further, this study explored the main issues facing a design museum in order to get a realistic overview of a project from its beginning to its final execution, toward the final goal of suggesting best practice. My personal goal is to develop a design museum in South Korea, and so those suggestions for best practice may serve me in that way, although I recognize practices will need to be adjusted for cultural specificity. Summary of Best Practices The guiding research questions for this study were: What are the best practices of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museums as seen by selected stakeholders in relation to its: (a) organizational structure, (b) collection strategies, (c) the function of physical space, (d) public support and collaboration, and (e) display techniques? My research confirmed that the definition and nature of the role and function of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and each department’s goals, scope and nature of practices, and strengths and limitations are all influenced

131 by the overarching context of the institution. This suggests that a qualitative study, which attends to the context of a case, is an effective means to understand the museum’s practice in an in-depth and holistic way. The strengths of the Cooper-Hewitt are its 250,000 object collection, respected curators, and excellent exhibitions that balance visitor accessibility with scholarship. In addition, the museum's strong Board of Directors, a group of people highly involved in the community, are the other strengths. With good connections to business and government, the Board helps to ensure legislative support through the allocation of needed funding. Moreover, a strong planning process and definite, achievable goals, as seen in the museum’s strategic report, are also the strength of the Cooper-Hewitt. Finally, its central location on Fifth Avenue in New York City lends itself to the Cooper-Hewitt's position as an exemplary museum. Their exhibitions also support the institution as well. Exhibitions help the museum as a whole justify its existence, and its confident expectation for continued support. Consequently, a vigorous, well-presented exhibition program affords this institution credibility. The results of the study indicate that, as a national leader of design museums, the Cooper-Hewitt fulfills a multitude of institutional roles and functions. The primary task facing the museum is to increase physical, intellectual, and psychological accessibility to the museum and its collection/exhibitions through diverse educational, design-related programs and activities that are offered in a way that is meaningful to the general public. Design museums have by tradition upheld a design information-driven way of knowing that is accredited by established standards of proof and reliability. To encourage the general public to interpret and experience design collections represents a challenge not only to the design museums’ power over the design object and its display, but also to the very basis and credibility of the knowledge that design museums presume to possess. Design museums help to engender an appreciation of ordinary objects and enhance our understanding of how objects and mass-produced images have been used to effect social, political, and technological change. After examining these objects, visitors can come away with a heightened sensitivity to these relationships in contemporary society. In this way, design museums help us to face the ever-changing social and cultural elements in the everyday world. I have discussed the idea that design museums are important arenas or tools for the formation of social identities. The goal of design museums is to offer exhibitions that expand the

132 design community’s own knowledge and understanding of itself and speak to the general public about the role and value of design in their lives. Their exhibits explore historical and contemporary topics in design in ways that relates to daily life. They aim to demonstrate how design and the built environment impact on the social, cultural, historical, aesthetical, and economic wellbeing of society. They honor and lend recognition to past achievement within the scope of design. They serve as an educational resource for design students and professionals and the community at large. Design museums have become part of a new mode of museum which generates culture. Implications for Further Research and Practice At the study moves towards completion, I can identify an area for further research. It would be useful to investigate the best ways for design museums to partner with the business community. In a Korean context, I recognize that business and corporate partnerships represent important opportunities for design museums. These partnerships can provide museums with financial support and noncash contributions (equipment; office and other services; management, marketing, and legal expertise; and other in-kind contributions), while the design museum can provide the exhibition place, curatorial, and technical support. Businesses gain a reputation for good citizenship, add polish to and promote their images, enhance a community’s quality of life, and retain highly skilled and talented employees who appreciate the values of cultural organizations. Museums have to clearly communicate the benefits corporations will derive from supporting them. For example, the Whitney Museum of American Art has formed partnerships with clothing design firms: it hosts fashion events and licenses designs from its collections, receives corporate support for exhibitions, and undertakes joining advertising and promotion with its business partners. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum has partnered with some members of the business community, like Target and the Coach Company, but more research could be conducted on these relationships. Such an investigation may provide helpful financial information, which other design museums then may use to inform their own networking and self- promotion.

133 APPENDIX A INTERVIEW PROTOCOL

1. What are your educational background, position, and number of years in this job? 2. Please describe, from your point of view, the nature, purposes, and functions of a design museum. (From your point of view, how does it serve society?) 3. Please describe your job. Are there other aspects to what you do that should be included in your job description but aren't? Is there anything you do that should be done by someone else? (Ideally, should your job be different than it is?) 4. What is a design museum’s mission in the community? 5. What are the administrative policies of your museum? 6. What do you think is the role of organizational structure, collection/cataloging, display/exhibitions, preservation, education, and public support in achieving the mission of your museum? 7. What lines of communication are used in getting your work done? What’s the process? 8. What is the organizational structure of your museum? Who’s responsible for what? 9. What is your day-to-day practice? Can you give me an example of a recent project? 10. What’s the educational role of design museums? Can you give me examples? 11. What professional design standards do you adhere to? What should the standards be? Is there a gap between practice and the ideal? 12. What is the best thing about design museums? 13. What would you change about your job or about design museum practices in general, if you could? 14. Is there anything else you want to tell me?

134 APPENDIX B CASE ANALYSIS FORM (EXAMPLE)

1. MAIN THEMES, IMPRESSION, SUMMARY STATEMENTS about what is going on in the site. 1. Initiate main theme: How the curator and other staff convey the meaning and context of design to the public. 2. The approach they use to create public sense and sensibilities. 3. Implementation of the open space approach is incredibly smooth in light of the minimal advance preparation. There is still a “walking on cracked eggs” feeling, though. 4. The museum staff seems cautiously willing to see how I utilize their interviews. 5. The atmosphere of the museum was very calm and relaxed.

2. EXPLANATIONS, SPECULATIONS, HYPOTHESES about what is going on in the site. 1. The purpose of the mission statement is to stimulate interest in and understanding of the connections between visual arts and design through exploration and discovery experiences that educate and inspire. The key point here is the “educational” mission. 2. Curator knew art field well enough to compose workable exhibition to implement the education concept. Also need to prepare further exhibition in ahead of time. 3. Their teamwork was great. Among staff members, they are very cooperative and supportive of each other.

3. ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS, MINORITY REPORTS, DISAGREEMENTS about what is going on in the site. 1. According to Eisner (1991), a thematic is made explicit in critical analysis through the naturalistic generalization process. The process of naturalistic generalization is a ubiquitous aspect of our normal generalizing tendencies but is a pervasive feature of life that takes many forms. I think true professionalism is shown when curators critique their ideas using the naturalistic generalization process with public standards always in mind.

4. NEXT STEPS FOR DATA COLLECTION: follow-up questions, specific actions, general directions fieldwork should take. 1. Need time to talk with staff, not just observe the start-up. Staff members are probably bothered because I am there to observe them.

5. Implication for REVISION, UPDATING OF CODING SCHEME. 1. Consider a code for support. 2. Revision of coding. 3. They implement their philosophy in the museum. Their ideas seem to work well in exhibitions. Thematic exhibitions, cooperative installation, continuity of developing and enjoying work-attitude make them shiny and glorious.

135 APPENDIX C MEMO (Example) Memos aid theorizing, as they represent write-ups of ideas about codes and their relationships based on data. The following is an example of a memo created in the course of this study.

1. On Code: Experience (October 18) In Art as Experience, Dewey’s primary purpose was to restore the continuity of aesthetic experience with the normal process of living (Dewey, 1934). Based on the fact that life proceeds in an environment and experiences come from the channel by which human beings interact with their environment, Dewey deals with an analysis of aesthetic experience within the context of our everyday life experience. Inspired by the scope of Dewey’s theory, I will observe Erin to examine what work she does and how she does it in regard to design museum exhibitions and education.

2. On Code: Exhibition and Art Education (October 18) According to Eisner (1991), personal biography is one of the tools researchers work with and the major instrument through which meaning is made and interpretation expressed. Therefore, I read the vitae over and over the night before meeting day, so that I could gain a better understanding of her personal biography. I selected two themes appropriate to the situations presented. One of the themes is process and progress of an exhibition from deinstallation to installation. The other theme is her education. Through attempting to represent the construction of a persuasive narrative via some aspect of a felt, “real” experience, I believe that there is transactive meaning and human significance embedded in it (Anderson, 2000).

3. On Code: Creativity, Experience, and Education (October 20) I asked Erin, “How important do you think art and design is in society/ in life?” She said, “It’s incredibly important. I know that art class many times gets cut out of the program first if the school is in trouble financially. I think that’s a huge mistake because, as we evolve as a society, we have more and more jobs that require people to think creatively. Art-- including music, dance, visual arts, theater, and design -- are the disciplines that help people learn how to think creatively. Some people are more natural at that kind of thing than others, but everyone can benefit from design education because I believe that creativity in the design transfers to creativity in other wide areas.” This statement makes me think about Dewey’s words, that art reveals that experience is capable of being intellectually and creatively transformed from one’s own experience (Dewey, 1934). Design museums should provide the opportunity for people to participate in the very process of imaginatively enlarging their own experience, thereby establishing communication through education.

136 APPENDIX D HUMAN SUBJECT APPROVAL

137 APPENDIX E FLOOR PLANS AND AN EXAMPLE OF EXHIBITION LAYOUT Floor 1

138 Floor 2

139 An Example of Exhibition Layout, CHRISTOPHER DRESSER

140 APPENDIX F COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT POLICY March 24, 1992 REVISIONS: Cordelia Rose, Collections Management Committee 1st draft April 19, 1996 2nd draft April 30, 1996 3rd draft May 3, 1996

REVISED April 4, 2006: Wendy Rogers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION A. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE B. STATEMENT OF AUTHORITY C. COLLECTING PLAN D. DEFINITION OF COLLECTIONS E. COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT ACTIVITY 1. DOCUMENTATION 2. ACQUISITION 3. DISPOSAL 4. ACCESS 5. CARE AND MAINTENANCE 6. RISK MANAGEMENT 7. SECURITY 8. INVENTORY 9. TEMPORARY CUSTODY 10. LENDING AND BORROWING

MONITORING, REVISING AND COMPLIANCE WITH COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT POLICY APPROVALS

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this document is to provide written policies covering all aspects of the acquisition, care, use, and disposition of objects for which Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, is permanently or temporarily guardian and to set forth regulations for the creation, maintenance, care, and use of the records for such objects. It establishes the policies for accessions to the collection, for incoming and outgoing loans of objects, and for maintaining inventory control. It specifies the circumstances and methods of deaccessioning objects from the collection, and states the Museum's policy concerning access to collections objects and records. It recognizes the dual goals of access and accountability.

141 A. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum was founded by the Hewitt sisters in 1897 to provide students, artisans, and designers with examples of decorative arts and design that would educate and inspire them. The mission of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is to explore the impact of design. In pursuit of this mission, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum collects examples of design and cares for a permanent collection of objects, research material, and associated archives that is available for study through exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and direct examination. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum encourages intellectual inquiry into and interpretation of design issues by a diverse audience, ranging from specialized scholars to members of the general public. It is Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's stated intent to make the study and appreciation of design accessible to people of all ages, from young children to adults, as well as to people with a variety of special needs, such as the visually and hearing impaired. Since its inception as a comprehensive study collection, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's holdings have been divided into four separate but mutually supportive curatorial departments textiles, drawings, prints, and graphic design, product design and decorative arts, and wallcoverings. The integrity of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's holdings is a primary concern, and curators, archivist, registrar, and administrative personnel keep interrelationships among holdings and integration of records an important consideration.

B. STATEMENT OF AUTHORITY Overall responsibility for the management of the collection rests with the Director of Cooper- Hewitt, National Design Museum. This responsibility is delegated to appropriate staff and is implemented by the policies and procedures set forth in this document. The staff member best suited by training and expertise is responsible for making initial judgments and recommendations concerning the acquisition, conservation, interpretation, maintenance, loan and/or deaccession of an object. Authorization for particular actions is given by the following committees:

COLLECTIONS COMMITTEE The Collections Committee is composed of external members and meets quarterly to approve acquisitions and disposals. The Committee is composed of external members, who are invited to join by the Director. The Chairman and President of the Board of Trustees serve on the Committee by virtue of their position. The Chair of the Committee only exercises their vote to resolve a tied vote. The Committee makes recommendations to the Director for approval. If a purchase of $50,000 or more is being contemplated, the Chair of the Collections Committee will report the transaction to the Board of Trustees for recommendation before making a final decision. The Registrar attends the meetings as Secretary, recording actions taken and tracking acquisitions funds. The curators and conservators attend the meetings, and the Librarian and other staff or specialists may be invited to attend the meetings or be consulted from time to time. Final authority rests with the Director, but it is the responsibility of the Director to refer to the Under Secretary for Art any proposed transaction that merits additional review because of unusual circumstances. The role of the Committee is defined further in Sections E2 and E3 of this document. BOARD OF TRUSTEES The Board of Trustees is an external appointive body of up to thirty-two members available for advice and assistance as needed. The Secretary of the Smithsonian and the Under Secretary for

142 Art serve as members ex officio. The Chairman and President serve on Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Collections Committee. When purchases or gifts valued at more than $50,000.00 are being contemplated, or deaccessions valued at more than $10,000.00, the Chair of the Collections Committee reports the transaction to the Board of Trustees for recommendation before making a final decision. The role of the Board is defined further in Sections E2 and E3 of this document. LOANS COMMITTEE The Loans Committee is an internal committee that meets bi-monthly to approve outgoing loans. Voting members are a curator from each of the four curatorial departments, the Registrar and the two Conservators. The Committee makes recommendations to the Director for approval, with whom final authority rests. The Deputy Curatorial Director acts as Chair of the Committee and the Registrar records actions taken. Other staff or specialists may be consulted from time to time. The role of the Committee is defined further in Section E10 of this document. EXHIBITIONS COMMITTEE The Exhibitions Committee is composed of Board members and external advisors. It ensures that all exhibitions are on mission and advises on possible content, presentation and programming. The heads of each Curatorial department attend meetings. Other staff or specialists may be invited to attend as appropriate. The Committee makes recommendations to the Director, with whom final authority rests. The role of the Committee is defined further in Section E10 of this document. INTERNAL COLLECTIONS COMMITTEE The Internal Collections Committee is an internal review committee that meets quarterly to vet new acquisitions before presentation to the Collections Committee. New acquisitions are discussed in the context of the approved list of most desired acquisitions. The committee also reviews purchases against the money available in acquisition funds. It determines the order in which objects will be presented to the Collections Committee and reviews justification statements.

The Collections are managed according to relevant conventions, laws, and statutes of the United States, and according to the following Smithsonian Institution Office Memoranda: SD103: Standards of Conduct SD108: Insurance and Risk Management Policy SD600: Collections Management Policy MAY 9, 1973: SI Policy on Museum Acquisitions

C. COLLECTING PLAN The Accessioned collections of design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum are the foundation for the Museum's programs and a vehicle through which the Museum carries out its mission to educate the public. The areas of concentration are product design and decorative arts, textiles, wallcoverings, and drawings, prints, and graphic design. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's collections are expanded and enriched by selectively building on existing strengths, by filling gaps in collections of technical, material, stylistic, historic, or contextual significance, and, in special instances, by introducing and pursuing new areas of collecting. Current and future collections development will be detailed in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Collecting Policy. Curatorial division staffs are responsible for developing, reviewing, and revising the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Collecting Policy.

143

The primary rationale for collecting is to develop a body of visual and intellectual material that documents and interprets the history and process of design. Initial concepts and ideas (drawings, sketches, models, and prototypes) are represented in the collections, as are the application of materials and techniques, the use of pattern, motif, or other aesthetic properties for visual communication, and examples of context or function, including solutions to design problems, as well as documentation of customs, rituals, and patterns of behavior among diverse societies and cultures, both historic and contemporary. Unique handmade objects, studio crafts, and mass produced or machine made objects are given equal consideration. The primary focus of the collection is on Western European and American production. Material from other cultures is collected for its relationships in form, pattern, or technique.

Unexpected collecting opportunities are discussed by the Collections Committee and a recommendation is made to the Director on whether or not to pursue specific acquisitions. Should an unexpected opportunity involve a new area of collecting, the Committee assigns the collection to the appropriate department(s) for care and preservation and establishes mutually agreeable interdepartmental controls for preserving and assuring access to it. Space for storage of collections is an important factor in deciding whether or not to commence collecting in a new area, although preferential consideration is given to collections of undeniable significance to Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in spite of storage limitations. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum discourages the acceptance of collections that do not meet the stringent review required to pursue acquisition in a new collecting area, while making every effort to suggest a suitable home for such collections.

In deciding whether to accept a collection, the Collections Committee also considers such factors as whether Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has adequate personnel to catalogue or manage it and whether the Museum has the financial support needed to purchase it, carry out conservation and photographic documentation, and make it accessible through visual, electronic, or study storage methods. Efforts to raise needed financial resources and personnel are made alongside requests for donations of objects or purchase funds, and alongside requests for support from foundations, corporations, and individuals who may be interested in backing collections development at the Museum.

D. DEFINITION OF COLLECTIONS [TO BE DISCUSSED] Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's principal collections are designated as Accessioned (using individual accession #), Supplementary (not accessioned, registered and tracked using s#), and Archive (accessioned using batch #).

The Accessioned Collection, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's permanent collection of objects, includes architectural elements, graphic arts, drawings and prints, furniture, textiles, metalwork, ceramics, glass, jewelry, wallcoverings, woodwork, and other applied arts.

Supplementary Collections are comprised of objects that are acquired to support the program goals of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum but are not fit for the Accessioned Collection. Supplementary Collections may include objects in too poor condition to accession; duplicates of lesser quality or poor condition; fakes; and exhibition props made by the Museum. Objects may

144 be acquired as a result of deaccessions from the Accessioned Collection; unsolicited gifts; found objects within or outside the Museum; samples from manufacturers; donations; purchases.

Archive Collections are comprised of the working papers, scrapbooks, and photocopies of correspondence of designers, companies involved with design, window designers, etc. Archive collections are stored and made accessible by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum as documents for illuminating the history and process of design, and they are used for study. The contents of such collections are not individually registered in the same manner as accessioned objects. Three dimensional objects and primary work such as drawings in an Archive collection may be approved for the Accessioned Collection. Examples of Archive collections are: the Picture Collection, the Color Archive, the Bonney Collection, the Donald Deskey Collection, the Dreyfuss Collection, the Horwitt Collection, the Kubler Collection, the Sutnar Collection, and the Wallance Collection.

Other related collection categories may be established by the Director and shall be managed in accordance with administrative policies to be formulated by the Director or a delegate of the Director with the advice and counsel of selected staff members.

The basic provisions of this policy (which apply specifically to the Accessioned Collection) shall be applied by logical extension to the management of those collection groups as authorized by the Director. Collections are developed according to the policies set forth in SD600.

E. COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT ACTIVITY E1. DOCUMENTATION The Registrar's Office is responsible for maintaining and making available up to date records that document the history and all activities affecting objects in Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's custody, along with their status (whether an object is in the Accessioned, Supplementary, or Archive collection; whether it has been deaccessioned; or whether it is on loan or temporarily left in the custody of the Museum). The Registrar ensures that all documents in use by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum are reviewed by the Smithsonian Institution Office of General Counsel and Office of Risk Management. The purpose of these records is the control and documentation of objects in the collection. The Registrar's Office is responsible for creating and maintaining accession records for each object and maintaining incoming and outgoing loan records; the appropriate curatorial department is responsible for cataloguing each object and maintaining object research files. All records must be created in an accurate, complete, and timely manner and updated regularly.

All records are safeguarded from hazards such as fire, water, loss, or vandalism. Property files containing legal documents pertaining to the Collection are stored in locked, fireproof filing cabinets by the Registrar. Microfilm of Accession Books and Journals of Entry prior to 1980 are stored off premises in Smithsonian Institution Archives. Automated records are backed up by OCIO and stored in an off-site, fire-proof location.

All collections management transactions are reported to the Director, Office of the Smithsonian Institution National Collections Program, as part of the annual report SI Collections Statistics.

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E1A. DOCUMENTATION OF ACCESSIONED COLLECTION Each object in the Accessioned Collection is supported by the following information: 1. Number reflecting year and sequence of acquisition and individual object number, with suffixes assigned to each object part. 2. Description of object, including what it is, approximate date of manufacture or style, maker, country of origin, material, and dimensions. 3. Method of acquisition, whether by gift, bequest, purchase, or exchange, and from whom. 4. Curatorial department responsible for object. 5. Location of object, including building and room number, and cupboard, rack, shelf, drawer, or box number. 6. Activity of object: on exhibition, on out going loan, in transit, out for conservation, photography, or other reasons. 7. Valid documents pertaining to all legal transactions. 8. Restrictions on use of object.

E1B. DOCUMENTATION OF SUPPLEMENTARY COLLECTION Objects in the Supplementary collection are supported by the following documentation: 1. An s# including department code letter assigned for inventory purposes, entered in collections database per Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Data Standards Manual. 2. Scope notes describing object and/or collection, which are updated every five years. 3. Method of acquisition, whether by gift, bequest, purchase, or exchange, and from whom. 4. Deed of Gift obtained by Registrar stating gift will be destroyed during use. 5. Funds used for purchase. 6. Curatorial department responsible for object. 7. Location of object, including building and room number, and cupboard, rack, shelf, drawer, or box number.

E1C. DOCUMENTATION OF ARCHIVE COLLECTIONS Objects in Archive collections are accessioned using batch numbers and are not individually registered in the same manner as accessioned objects. Archive collections are supported by the following documentation:

1. Number reflecting year and sequence of acquisition and batch number correlating to archivist's finders' guide. 2. Method of acquisition, whether by gift, bequest, purchase, or exchange, and from whom. 3 Location of collection, including building and room number. 4. Activity of an object: on exhibition, on out going loan, in transit, out for conservation, photography, or other reasons. 5. Valid documents pertaining to all legal transactions. 6. Restrictions on use of collection.

E2. ACQUISITION OF OBJECTS Acquisitions are made through gift, bequest, purchase, or exchange and require the approval of the Collections Committee and the Director. The Collections Committee meets at regular

146 intervals to consider objects offered to Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and at any other time that action is required. The Committee makes a recommendation to the Director, with whom final authority regarding acquisition rests. When acquisition of an object valued at $50,000.00 or more is being contemplated by the Collections Committee, the Chair of the Collections Committee must report the transaction to the Board of Trustees for recommendation before making a final decision. For all purchases, the evaluation of the proposed purchase price by the Cooper-Hewitt should be documented in writing. It is the Director's responsibility to refer to the Under Secretary for Art any proposed acquisition that merits additional review because of unusual circumstances. The Registrar prepares and files a written record of the Committee's recommendations and all subsequent action taken by the Director.

The curator to whose collection an object has been offered as gift, bequest, exchange, or purchase prepares a formal recommendation along with supportive justification for acceptance or rejection. This recommendation must include reference to all restrictions, associated costs, or other eccentricities attached to an object. Justification for adding objects to the Collection may be based on one or more distinct evaluations of the intellectual, social, material, technical, and visual significance of an object. Four major points are germane to any discussion concerning acquisition: 1. Concept or original idea. 2. Design elements. 3. Materials and techniques. 4. Function and/or use. 5. Importance of object in history of design.

In order to be added to the Collection an object must meet each of the following criteria: 1. The appropriateness of an object to the scope of the collection. 2. The potential of an object for exhibition and/or study. 3. The condition of an object and whether it is within the capabilities of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's conservation resources to provide necessary care. 4. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's capability to store an object. 5. The possibility of achieving satisfactory resolution of copyright, trademark, or other restrictions on use or ownership. 6. The acceptability of an object's provenance.

In order to be added to the Collection, an object should have an established provenance. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum makes every effort to document the provenance of an object. Where relevant, decisions regarding provenance shall be made in accordance with the guidance set forth in SD600. An object is accessioned only if there is a good faith intention to retain it in the Collection for the foreseeable future. An object may not be accessioned into the Collection for the sole purpose of exchanging it for another object in the future.

Objects may be added in new areas of collecting after careful deliberation by the Collections Committee and approval by the Director. Justification of expansion can be based on such considerations as the fact that a collection is comprehensive and well documented or the need to document newly recognized areas of design history and .

147 Supplementary collections are acquired by the curatorial departments or the Education Department in the same way as Accessioned Collections. Supplementary collections are acquired to support the program goals of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.Objects in the Supplementary collections are deemed to be of lesser importance than those in the Accessioned Collection and may be destroyed when used for experimentation, for touching by public on exhibition, for hands on teaching, or for loan to the Education Department. There is a probable 5% destruction or deterioration annually through hands on use and experimentation.

In order to be added to a Supplementary collection, an object must meet each of the following criteria: 1. The relatedness of the reference material to objects in the Accessioned Collection. 2. The spatial requirements: an object may take no more than 1% of the space required by the department's Accessioned Collection and require no more than 5 linear/square feet of storage space in all. 3. The number of items: no more than 10 items of a similar nature may be added to a given collection.

The Education Department may purchase expendable objects for workshops from its own budget and dispose of such objects according to regulations for disposal of Smithsonian Institution property.

Acquisition of Objects by Gift Title to all objects accepted as gifts must be outright without restrictions, except that certain restrictions or provisions made by the donor, which may be in accord with scholarly needs, will be considered by the Collections Committee and the Director if the object is of exceptional rarity or importance to the Collection. If restrictions are accepted, a signed statement of approval by the Director will be filed with the Registrar and noted in the accession records. Where copyright is not acquired with an object, a non exclusive license for museum use must be obtained if possible from the owner of the copyright.

Once an object has been approved for addition to the Collection, the Registrar sends appropriate paperwork to the owner. A Deed of Gift should be executed by a donor or the donor's agent and completed by the Curatorial Director or, when necessary, the Registrar. In addition to the Deed of Gift, a letter of appreciation to the donor is prepared by the Registrar for the signature of the Curatorial Director, and sent to the donor as promptly as possible. A letter of appreciation may also be sent by the curator involved. The curator of the object must send the Registrar a receipt for the object temporarily left in the Museum's custody (the OTL disposition form) as soon as the object is approved or declined and returned. The Registrar assigns an accession number to an object when the three elements of a gift have been satisfied: donor’s intent, physical possession, and acceptance.

Cataloging of a gift is done by the curatorial department responsible for an object once an OTL has been created. Updates to the catalogue information of an object are the responsibility of the curator having custody of an object.

When gifts or bequests of groups of items are offered and only a portion are intended to be

148 accessioned, the Collections Committee will be required to consider the planned disposition of those objects not intended to be accepted into the Accessioned Collection, and all such objects will be recorded by the Registrar as objects placed in the custody of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, or accepted by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum for general use, for the Supplementary collections, or for another designated collection group. Donors or estates should concur in such planned dispositions.

Acquisition of Objects by Purchase The procedure for adding objects through purchase includes the additional criterion of the validity of the price asked. The Registrar tracks obligation and expenditure from all Acquisition Funds. All purchases, regardless of source of funds, must be submitted to the Collections Committee for approval. When purchase of an object valued at $50,000.00 or more is being contemplated by the Collections Committee, the Chair of the Collections Committee should report the transaction to the Board of Trustees for recommendation before making a final decision. The evaluation of the proposed purchase price by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum should be documented in writing.

Once an object has been approved for addition to the Collection, the Registrar processes the financial paperwork. The curator of the object must send the OTL disposition copy to the Registrar as soon as that object is approved or declined and returned. The Registrar assigns an accession number to an object when the invoice has been paid. The Registrar keeps a copy of the invoice and the purchase order as title to the object. Cataloging of a gift is done by the curatorial department responsible for an object once an OTL has been created. Updates to the catalogue information of an object are the responsibility of the curator having custody of an object.

Appraisals of Acquisitions Monetary appraisals must not be given to anyone outside Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. If asked, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will identify suitable outside appraisers, usually three, without recommending any of them, and, if appropriate, will also identify organizations of appraisers to be approached for suggestions.

E3. DISPOSAL Objects in the Accessioned Collection may be deaccessioned and downgraded into the Supplementary or other Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum collections or they may be deaccessioned and disposed of externally according to established procedures.

In order to deaccession an object in the Accessioned Collection with no legal or moral restrictions that is valued at less than $1,000, or to downgrade it from the Accessioned Collection to the Supplementary or other collection groups, the curator involved may present it to the Collections Committee with a recommendation that it be deaccessioned for one of the following reasons: 1. deterioration beyond use; 2. duplication of objects of a kind beyond the number necessary; 3. diminished relevance to the Collection; 4. title to the object is defective or its continued possession is otherwise inappropriate;

149 5. outside the scope of the Collection; 6. not consistent with the Museum’s mission; 7. found to be a fake.

The Director receives the Collections Committee's recommendation and makes a determination as to the most appropriate collection status for the object without further review; the Registrar deaccessions the object and records the object's changed status in the appropriate collection's records.

If an object is valued in excess of $1,000, or if a curator is recommending disposal of an object from any collection, the following procedures are followed:

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum first ascertains whether there is a legal or moral restriction against disposal. If there are any possible restrictions inhibiting removal from the collections, the matter is referred to the Office of General Counsel. If there are no such restrictions, the Collections Committee votes whether to deaccession the object. If exchange or sale, rather than transfer, is contemplated, two independent appraisals will be obtained. The Collections Committee makes its recommendation to the Director for approval, with whom final authority rests. In addition, any object valued at more than $10,000.00 must be further approved by the Smithsonian's Office of General Counsel, the Smithsonian's Under Secretary for Art, and the Secretary of the Smithsonian. An object valued at over $50,000 must also be submitted to the Smithsonian's Board of Regents for its approval or, in exceptional circumstances, to the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents. A written record of the Collections Committee recommendation and all subsequent action taken on a proposed deaccession is kept by the Registrar. If appropriate, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum may issue a press release announcing a deaccession and may send a written notice to the donor or the donor's heirs. The office of General Counsel should be consulted regarding whether any other notice should be given, such as to the Attorney General of the State of New York or the Congress.

The methods of disposition of an object are: 1. Offering as transfer to all interested Smithsonian Institution bureaus or offering for sale if object was purchased by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. 2. Offering as exchange or donation to another public museum or educational institution for an object to be taken into the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Collection. 3. Selling at public auction or to the highest bidder if not accepted by an auction house. 4. Deaccessioning and transferring to Supplementary or other collection groups. 5. Witnessing destruction.

Objects in the Supplementary collections may be disposed of by the departments that acquired them with the approval of the Collections Committee. Disposal date and method of disposal must be reported to the Registrar. The criteria for disposal are: 1. Space limitations. 2. Destruction of an object through use. 3. Upgrading of object to Accessioned Collection.

150 The methods of disposal of an object are: 1. Gift to a non profit educational institution. 2. Witnessed destruction.

Supplementary collections must be reviewed for disposal every eight years. Under no circumstances will ownership of deaccessioned objects be transferred to any Smithsonian employee or Board member. Proceeds realized from the disposal of collection items must be designated for additional collection acquisitions. Proceeds may be used for costs directly associated with the acquisition of additional collection items, including: appraisal, shipping, and commissions. Similarly, proceeds may be used for costs directly associated with the deaccession and disposal of collection items, including: appraisal, culling or processing, shipping, and commissions. Proceeds must be deposited in the General Acquisitions Endowment Fund. New acquisitions from these funds and objects received in exchange are recorded in the name of the original donor.

All deaccessioning documentation (memos; Collections Committee minutes; Director's action; additional approvals, where necessary; receipts; correspondence, etc.) must be filed with the Registrar, and the de accessioned object so marked in the accessions records along with the price received where relevant. In the case of inadvertent disposal, or irreparable breakage, an object is deaccessioned by the Registrar's office when certainty of loss is established after reporting the loss to the Collections Committee. In the case of theft from the collection, the location records are marked "stolen," with the date noted; in the case of lost objects, the location records are marked "missing," with the date noted. In neither instance are they deaccessioned.

E4. ACCESS Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum endeavors to give free access to objects in the collection and to supporting records in every way consistent with their security and safety and in accordance with the policies of the Museum. An appointment with a curator must be made to see objects not freely available on public exhibition. Similarly appointments must be made with the Registrar to see object records and with the Librarian to see Archives. When visiting a curatorial department, the Library, or the Registrar's Office, a visitor must sign in the departmental log. Each department has its own specialized procedures for visitors.

Most information in the Registrar's records is available to the public, but certain exceptions must be made for privacy reasons, to protect proprietary information, etc. The following types of information are not released to the public: personal information about a donor or lender; information a donor or lender wishes to be confidential; location of object; value of object. All requests from the public for confidential information in such records should be referred to the Registrar who, in turn, consults with the Director or Assistant Director and/or the Smithsonian General Counsel's Office if uncertain as to the proper disposition of a request.

E5. CARE AND MAINTENANCE Immediate responsibility for the physical care of collections lies with the assigned curator, who insures that conservation and maintenance schedules reflect public access requirements, research and exhibition needs, funding, and staff resources. Curators must be constantly vigilant to the need for conservation, both preventive and for upkeep and stabilization of the Collection.

151 Curators and conservators decide when treatment is required in consultation with each other.

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum retains conservators in specialized laboratories, one for textiles and one for paper. Other kinds of objects may be dealt with through cooperation with the Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory or by independent conservators, depending upon the kind of care necessary. Questions that cannot be resolved at staff level are referred to the Director.

Constant attention is given to the improvement and efficient use of storage facilities, equipment, and materials; to keeping the collections clean and free of such dangers as pests, mold, and other deteriorative agents; and to maintaining a safe environment. Conservation surveys taken as resources allow result in long and short range plans for treatment of objects and improvement of storage.

All staff must be constantly vigilant to the security of objects in storage, on exhibition, or in transit. Objects may be moved out of collections areas only under the supervision of a curator, conservator, or the Registrar, who are responsible for providing adequate training for all personnel who handle objects. The Registrar must monitor all packing and transportation of objects that move off Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's premises. The central and only control point for recording and supervising all collection objects moving in and out of Cooper- Hewitt, National Design Museum will be the Registrar's office. This office must be responsible for maintaining and making available up to date records of all activities affecting objects in Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's custody. The purpose of these records is the control and documentation of these objects.

Objects in Supplementary Collections receive care appropriate to the material.

E6. RISK MANAGEMENT Risks to the collections in storage are identified during re inventory and continual monitoring by collections management staff through on site inspection and the use of devices to record climate and to catch pests. Risks during handling are assessed before an object is moved. Risks during transit are assessed by the Registrar and during loan, by standard facility reports before a loan is submitted for approval to the Loans Committee. Risks are eliminated and/or reduced through proper use of objects, continual training, appropriate materials and equipment, and planned improvement of facilities.

Routine review of potential hazards is carried out by the Museum's Safety Committee, which includes Security, Exhibitions, Registrarial, and Conservation staff.

Insurance is reported by the Registrar and carried by the Smithsonian Institution Office of Risk Management. It is governed by SD 108: Insurance and Risk Management.

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's collections objects must be insured only when off Smithsonian premises, in transit, and while in custody of organizations other than Smithsonian bureaus. Borrowers of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum collections objects other than Smithsonian bureaus must give proof of insurance coverage to the Registrar or agree in writing

152 to reimburse Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum for insurance protection.

Objects borrowed by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum from other than Smithsonian bureaus must be insured, usually by the Smithsonian or as indicated through the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Insurance and Risk Management.

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and Smithsonian Institution objects in transit between Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and other Smithsonian Institution bureaus must be insured in transit.

Objects left in Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's custody under a receipt, as described in Section E9, will not be insured.

The Registrar is responsible for assuring that all required documents and loan agreements have been received before instituting insurance coverage.

Loss or significant damage to an object must be reported to the Curatorial Director and the Registrar as soon as discovered, and necessary documentation must be processed promptly by the Registrar's Office. Theft or vandalism to an object must also be reported to the Chief of Security.

E7. SECURITY A major purpose of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is to secure and protect all objects and records in its care. Responsibility for security rests with the Chief of Security, who works in daily contact with the Smithsonian Institution Office of Protection Services as well as with appropriate Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum staff.

OPS is responsible for maintaining the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Disaster Plan, with input from appropriate staff members.

All records are safeguarded from hazards such as fire, water, loss, or vandalism. Copies of manual accession prior to 1980 records are stored off premises in Smithsonian Institution Archives. Automated records are backed up by OCIO and stored in an off-site, fireproof location.

The central and only control point for recording and supervising all collections objects moving in and out of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is the Registrar's Office. Theft or vandalism to an object must be reported to the Chief of Security and the crime scene left intact to preserve evidence. Any such inspection of objects must be under the supervision of a curator, and/or conservator, or the Registrar.

All objects personally owned by staff members and brought onto Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum premises which in any way might be confused with Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum collections must be registered with Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's Chief of Security, with a copy of the registration filed with the Registrar's Office. (Staff should consult the codes of ethics promulgated by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and the Smithsonian (SD 103) with regard to questions on personal collections.)

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Objects on exhibition are to be checked daily as security guards change shifts. Keys to display cases and storage areas must be restricted and obtained through the Chief of Security or as delegated to each Department. Extra guards are assigned as appropriate during high risk activities such as building renovations or exhibition changes, when special events are held in the building, and when high value or politically sensitive objects are in transit.

E8. INVENTORY OF ACCESSIONED AND SUPPLEMENTARY COLLECTIONS Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's collections are physically inventoried to keep the Museum accountable for its objects and to insure access to its collections, in support of its research and interpretive programs. Inventories are conducted in on going compliance with SD600, dated 5/11/92, mandating a current reconciled inventory of the collections. The first inventory of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Accessioned Collection, was taken between 1978 and 1983, in compliance with OM804; the second inventory was started in 1984 and was finished in 1992, with the completion of the Drawings and Prints inventory in 1994. Inventory cycles are established in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s inventory cycle plan. Inventory is documented by date and initials of inventory taker and location is verified or recorded in the computer. Changes of location of objects must be recorded in the computer within one day. A spot inventory of a randomly selected sampling of objects and records is carried out annually by the Registrar as required.

Occasionally, the Office of Inspector General will conduct a spot inventory of objects and records. Objects must be found within one day. Objects and automated inventory records must be reconciled with manual accession records and all records be refined in a timely manner.

Objects on incoming loan for exhibition are inventoried by the Registrar and included, with collections objects, on a plan of each gallery.

The first inventory of objects in off-site storage was completed in 1986; the second was completed in 1992. Outgoing long term loans must be spot inventoried annually by a curator, the Registrar, or a designated official.

When adequately staffed, control of inventory records will be separated from access to collections. Legal documents and other accession records are in the Registrar's Office and are separated from the collections, which are located in the curatorial departments. The Registrar signs property passes for collections or loan objects exiting Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

E9. TEMPORARY CUSTODY The depositor of an object accepted by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum for the purpose of examination, attribution, identification, consideration for acquisition, etc., must be issued a receipt stating the terms of acceptance. This receipt clearly states that Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will give the object the same kind of professional care as objects in the collections but that it will not insure the object while in its care. The receipt also specifies the duration of time Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is willing to hold the object and specifies conditions for the disposition of the object if left in the custody of Cooper-Hewitt,

154 National Design Museum beyond the agreed closing date. All such objects must be registered by the Registrar, and monitored in the same way as loans. Responsibility for care and inventory control of all such objects will be in the appropriate department. If an object is sent to Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum or is left on the premises with no donor identification, every effort will be made to find the owner. If the owner cannot be located within a reasonable time, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will seek advice from the General Counsel's Office about the disposition of the object.

E10. LENDING AND BORROWING OUTGOING LOANS: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum staff will continue in the tradition of lending objects from the collections to other public institutions such as museums, libraries, and schools in order to make them publicly accessible in the broadest manner, while recognizing considerations of good conservation practices and Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's own exhibition and research plans.

A formal request by a responsible official of a borrowing institution must be reviewed and approved by the Loans Committee, which meets at regularly scheduled intervals. Considerations in assessing the request include questions of unusual restrictions or requirements and whether the object can withstand physical conditions such as prolonged exposure to light, change of climate, excessive handling, and transportation. The Director's decision, after consultation with the Loans Committee, shall be binding.

A facilities report must be submitted by the borrowing institution, stating security, environmental control, and lighting facilities available and including general data on the institution's operation and staff aptitudes. In addition, the Registrar will be responsible for negotiating an Agreement of Outgoing Loan. A signed copy of the Agreement from the borrower must be obtained and signed by the Registrar before the loan is made.

Once a loan request has been approved by the Loan Committee, the Registrar's Office makes arrangements with the borrowing institution for insurance coverage, packing, and shipping. The Registrar ensures that recoverable costs will be met by the borrowing institution. The duration of time of a loan must be specified on the Agreement for Outgoing Loan and proof of insurance coverage must be received before an object is sent. The Registrar's Office, in consultation with the conservation department, is responsible for preparing an outgoing condition report and for monitoring an object during loan procedures until its departure, and on its return, reviewing the outgoing condition report for any apparent change before returning it to the curatorial department from which it came. If an outgoing loan is uncollectible, the Registrar enlists the help of Smithsonian’s General Counsel.

Objects generally will be lent only for non profit educational and scholarly purposes. If lent to a for profit organization, a scholarly catalogue must accompany the exhibition. Requests for loans to government officials are subject to the criteria set forth in SD600, Exhibit D. Property of others in Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's custody will be lent only with proof of the owner's agreement, which must be requested directly by the borrower from the owner.

INCOMING LOANS: Once an exhibition has been selected by the Exhibitions Committee and

155 added to the schedule, objects may be borrowed by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum for exhibition and for study from any source possible, including individuals, other institutions, manufacturers, dealers, or governmental agencies. Exhibition content is reviewed for its impact on the public.

If any doubt exists concerning the provenance of an incoming loan, assurance of the ethically unimpaired provenance of the object must be obtained by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's representative generating the exhibition, before recommending the incoming loan, in accordance with SD 600.

The loan request is made by the appropriate curator and the loan agreement is signed by the Registrar. If any unusual restrictions are imposed by the prospective lender, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will make a commitment only after such consultation with staff and/or other Smithsonian offices as may be necessary.

Borrowed objects are documented and monitored by the Registrar's Office. An Agreement of Incoming Loan specifying duration of the loan must be completed by the Registrar before the loan arrives at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The Registrar is responsible for supervision, receiving, unpacking, preparing incoming and outgoing condition reports, photographs, inventory control, dispersal and other record keeping, according to Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum procedures.

Incoming loans are insured by the Smithsonian Institution or the lender, as agreed upon, and at the lender's valuation, assuming it is in line with fair market value. Appraisals must not be given. When asked, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will give names of suitable outside appraisers, usually three, without recommendations, and will include, where pertinent, organizations of appraisers to be approached for suggestions.

Incoming loans for study purposes may be obtained by individual curators issuing an OTL form, informing the Registrar, and following the procedure for objects temporarily left in the custody of the Museum.

MONITORING, REVISING, AND COMPLIANCE WITH THE CHNDM COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT POLICY The Registrar is responsible for monitoring compliance with the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Collections Management Policy and for recommending its review every five years and revision as warranted, or in compliance with revisions of SD600. The Registrar reports annually on Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's ability to comply with its Collections Management Policy mandates. This report is submitted annually by the Director to the Secretary, through the Director, Office of the Smithsonian Institution National Collections Program.

Staff responsible for collection activities should refer to Section 8 Internal Controls, and Section 9 Staff Responsibilities, for further information on ethics, personal collecting and appraisals. Prepared by Cordelia Rose, Registrar, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, May 3, 1996 Approved by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Collections Management Committee, 1996

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Hyunkyung (Eunice) Lee was born in Seoul, Korea, on April 29, 1977. After graduating from the Seoul High School of the Arts, she majored in Visual Communication Design at Hongik University, College of Art. In 2002, she came to New York to study Museum Studies for two years at Syracuse University, obtaining a Master of Arts degree. Hyunkyung worked as an intern at the public relation and development department in the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), assisting in writing press releases. She also worked as an intern at the National Modern Museum of Art in Korea, assisting in exhibition design works. During 2000-2002, she worked at the LG Electronics in Seoul as a graphic design researcher, developing GUI (Graphic User Interface) in mobile devices. In 2004, Hyunkyung entered the Ph.D. program of the Art Education Department at Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee, Florida. The program at FSU encompassed the fields of arts administration and art education. She has published articles and research papers on design museums.

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