Can design bring peace on Earth? Our nation’s design museum would like to know
Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian’s design museum in New York City, announced a new exhibition
Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian’s design museum in New York City, announced a new exhibition last week that will explore the role design can play in pursuing peace with work from around the world.
Designing Peace opens June 10 and runs through Sept. 4, 2023, and will feature 40 proposals and initiatives from 25 countries in the form of models, full-size installations, maps, images, and film, according to the museum.
Among the work already announced for the exhibition is a new world peace symbol by Uruguayan graphic designer Amijai Benderski (above), Harlem’s Black Lives Matter mural, and Conflict Kitchen, a Pittsburgh temporary takeout restaurant with a menu based on foods from countries the U.S. was in conflict with.
“Teeter-Totter Wall” (2019), a set of pink seesaws on the U.S.-Mexico border wall by UC Berkeley architecture professor Ronald Rael and San José State design department chair Virginia San Fratello, will be included in a section about designing safe, healthy, and respectful environments.
Set to open nearly four months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the exhibition has actually been in the works for years, with Cooper Hewitt’s curator of socially responsible design Cynthia E. Smith beginning field research in 2017.
“Peace building and design are dynamic processes which involve engagement, understanding context, trust-building, communication and iteration,” Smith said in a statement. “This exhibition will explore the role of design in building peace and resilience — and proposes that peace is not abstract and remote, but can be local, tangible and even possible.”