Fragile Beasts

ONGOING Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection

Occupying the entire first floor of the museum’s Carnegie Mansion, Design Across Time expands public access to Cooper Hewitt’s collection and includes significant works newly brought out of storage. Through objects spanning time, geography, and discipline—including graphic design, product design, fashion, textiles, furniture, wallcoverings, digital design, and architecture—this exhibition highlights the breadth of the national design collection. Design Across Time organizes the museum’s vast collection around thematic clusters to explore some of the many approaches designers use in their creative process. Designers Play and Tweak to experiment and iterate ideas. They Repeat elements to reinforce messages; Transform materials into sustainable solutions; Show Off craftsmanship to create objects of beauty; or Simplify complex shapes and information. Learn more about Design Across Time →

ON VIEW through September 27, 2026 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum MADE IN AMERICA: THE INDUSTRIAL PHOTOGRAPHY OF CHRISTOPHER PAYNE

Made in America brings together more than 70 large-format photographs captured by Christopher Payne over a decade-long photographic journey to learn more about the craft of both industrial and artisanal making in the United States. His images celebrate the combination of human skill and mechanical precision that transform raw materials into objects as diverse as pencils, semiconductors, pianos, and rockets. Learn more about Made in America →

On view through August 16, 2026 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum ART OF NOISE

Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art of Noise celebrates groundbreaking design that enhances and visualizes our musical experiences. From concert posters to record albums, phonographs to digital music players, handheld radios to sound systems, Art of Noise takes visitors on an exploration of how design has transformed people’s relationship to music over the past 100 years. The exhibition features more than 300 artworks drawn largely from the collections of Cooper Hewitt and SFMOMA, as well as teenage engineering’s unique choir installation and Devon Turnbull’s immersive listening room. Learn more about Art of Noise →

ON VIEW through August 16, 2026 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Devon Turnbull: HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3

Part of Art of Noise, the installation HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 features a large scale, handmade, audio system by multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull. Known under his creative pseudonym OJAS, Turnbull handcrafts high-fidelity audio systems designed to envelop the listener in sound that is as rich in texture as it is in emotion. The listening room will be activated throughout the run of the exhibition with sonic experiences curated by noted music collectors, archivists, audiophiles, and musicians from the New York area and beyond.

ON VIEW through JAN. 31, 2027 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum The Substitute

Part of Design Across Time, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s The Substitute is an immersive video and sound installation that digitally resurrects the extinct male Northern white rhino using artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art visual effects.

Saturday, November 2, 2024 to Sunday, August 10, 2025 Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial

Featuring 25 site-specific, newly commissioned installations, Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial explores design’s role in shaping the physical and emotional realities of home across the United States, US Territories, and Tribal Nations. The exhibition is the seventh offering in the museum’s Design Triennial series, which was established in 2000 to address the most urgent topics of...