The evening featured a discussion on the influence of design on all of our lives, and then a presentation by Design Museum Vice President Liz Pawlak on the same topic. Liz also highlighted the museum’s recent multi-media exhibition, “Bespoke Bodies: The Design and Craft of Prosthetics,” which highlights people at the intersection of healthcare, style and tech in prosthetic design.
The Design Museum’s mission is to educate the world on the role of design in our lives and to unite the community in ways that enrich our collective work, make businesses more competitive, and solve real-world problems more creatively. WIT echoes this mission and one of WIT’s Industrial Design faculty, Derek Cascio, was among the founders of the Museum, and WIT has partnered with the Museum on several student projects over the years. This focus on leveraging design to enrich human life is at the core of CannonDesign’s efforts and it was a privilege to host these partners for an inspiring discussion.
During the event, Liz Pawlak shared “we’re a new kind of museum focused on educating the world about design,” and she shared some examples of “turning a museum inside out, by providing exhibitions and events in places where people already go: retail space, public space—even outside.”
As an example, the Museum’s “Street Seats” program featured selected work by international designers, where the Museum installed unconventional outdoor seating as a way to make public spaces that inspire, invite and welcome. In 2016 the Museum opened its biggest exhibition ever: after 3 years of research, curating, and design, it launched Extraordinary Playscapes, an exhibition on design and the importance of outdoor play with new playground installations for Boston.
CannonDesign is proud to be a member of the Design Museum and we look forward to future events.