MAD | Museum of Arts and Design

MAD | Museum of Arts and Design MAD champions artists, designers, and artisans, presenting contemporary art and design through a craf
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The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields—presenting artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill to their work. Since the Museum’s founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from tradi

tional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum’s curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving 21st-century innovation, fostering a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design.

MAD mourns the passing of influential textile artist Ted Hallman. A leader in the fiber arts field since the 1950s, Hall...
06/24/2026

MAD mourns the passing of influential textile artist Ted Hallman. A leader in the fiber arts field since the 1950s, Hallman is perhaps best known for his MAD collection piece, Meditation Environment, first featured in the 1970 exhibition Contemplation Environments at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (now MAD). The exhibition presented a variety of artist-conceived experimental structures designed to quiet the mind. Pushing the boundaries of his material, Hallman used the sound-absorbing qualities of yarn to design a womb-like space for meditation. Through decades of innovative work, Hallman helped raise the profile of the American Craft Movement. Ted Hallman (1933–2026) will be greatly missed by the craft community he helped shape.
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Image 1: The artist seated in his Meditation Environment, 1970. Photo by Ferdinand Boesch.

Image 2:
Ted Hallman
Meditation Environment,1969.
Cotton, acrylic, and steel

Empathy mechanisms: the strategy the Haas Brothers use to describe how a thoughtfully designed object enters our daily l...
06/23/2026

Empathy mechanisms: the strategy the Haas Brothers use to describe how a thoughtfully designed object enters our daily lives until it becomes inseparable from how we move through the world, a cell phone, a water bottle, or a couch that holds a memory of comfort.

Simon and Nikolai Haas approach design not as a means of solving problems, but as a shared visual language — a material in its own right. An object's form implies a relationship to the body, a moment of rest, a familiar ease.

Their Beast series represents this. Each one returns the viewer's gaze, projecting a personality that invites empathy and suggests a creature with a life of its own. Over time, the Beast series evolved into sculptural works without any hint of function whatsoever.
On view now. Link in bio.

Haas Brothers
Armold Schwarzernegger, 2016.
Icelandic sheepskin, silver-plated cast bronze, and hand-carved ebony

Jean Luc Pi-guard , 2016.
Icelandic sheepskin, silver plated cast bronze

Armold Sc

This Juneteenth, we reflect on the work of MAD Collection artist Michael Cummings, whose narrative quilts tell the stori...
06/19/2026

This Juneteenth, we reflect on the work of MAD Collection artist Michael Cummings, whose narrative quilts tell the stories of the African American experience, using dynamic forms and bright colors to create vibrant collages.

Discussing the inspiration behind his work "I'll Fly Away," Cummings stated, "I have attempted to visually present an early American icon … an African American woman caught in the forced system of slavery. She is full of self-determination. She is also a mother, wife, and spiritual force. As in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, she knows that someday she will fly away home, from all the pain and misery."

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Michael Cummings
I'll Fly Away, 1991
Cotton, linen, cotton blends, silk, wool, polyester batting, canvas, acrylic, antique buttons, African beads, cowrie shells, textile paints; machine-sewn, appliquéd, hand-sewn embellishments, painted

Next Friday, June 26, to celebrate their six-month residencies in the Museum’s Artist Studios, resident artists Joel Gai...
06/18/2026

Next Friday, June 26, to celebrate their six-month residencies in the Museum’s Artist Studios, resident artists Joel Gaitan, Nima Jeizanb, and Jayoung Yoon will each speak about their respective practices in The Theater at MAD. Following the talks, the artists will welcome visitors into their studios to view work created at MAD.

Tickets below:
https://madmuseum.org/events/artists-talks-and-open-studios

Jessica Lichtenstein adopts the visual language of seduction, ornament, and spectacle, then redirects it toward critique...
06/12/2026

Jessica Lichtenstein adopts the visual language of seduction, ornament, and spectacle, then redirects it toward critique. The female body no longer serves as a passive motif. It becomes structure, landscape, and force. The result is an environment that is both visually sumptuous and conceptually precise. The viewer is invited to reconsider who is looking, who is represented, and who holds the power.

Tap the link in bio to reserve your tickets to come explore Lichtenstein's work this weekend.

Tap the link in bio to
Photo credit: Filip Wolak

Nike: Form Follows Motion opens at the Museum of Arts and Design on September 12th. This marks the U.S. premiere of the ...
06/11/2026

Nike: Form Follows Motion opens at the Museum of Arts and Design on September 12th. This marks the U.S. premiere of the first ever comprehensive museum exhibition on the world’s most influential sports brand.

The exhibition traces the five decades that turned a small Oregon running company into a global cultural force. The exhibition emphasizes the importance of sports as an arena for design innovation and global change.

Following iconic sports moments in the New York City area, from the New York Knicks’ historic 2026 NBA Finals run, to the FIFA World Cup 2026™ and the 2026 U.S. Open, Nike Form Follows Motion will be on view at MAD from through March 7, 2027.


Nike: Form Follows Motion is organized by Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany, and is curated by Glenn Adamson and assistant curator Marcella Hanika with exhibition design by JA Projects and graphic design by Daniel Streat, Visual Fields.

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Image credit: On Your Feet or In Your Face« poster, Nike Air Force, 1986

© Nike, Inc.

We're reppin' the orange and blue too! Knicks in 5! Go New York, Go New York, Go!🏀_________________Dante Marioni Orange ...
06/10/2026

We're reppin' the orange and blue too! Knicks in 5! Go New York, Go New York, Go!🏀
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Dante Marioni
Orange Trio with Blue Outline, 1993
Glass

When reflecting on the work of the 2025 Burke Prize winner, MAD’s Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and William and ...
06/09/2026

When reflecting on the work of the 2025 Burke Prize winner, MAD’s Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator, Elissa Auther said, “Hai-Wen Lin’s kites are both intimate and monumental; hand-dyed fabrics carry traces of the body yet soar into the sky as architectural structures. Through meticulous making and imaginative reconfiguration, Hai-Wen reminds us that craft is not static; it is alive, mutable, and capable of expanding how we think about our relationship to the natural world and to one another.”

Plan your visit to see this work and more expansive pieces from Burke Prize artist Hai-Wen Lin now on view in our second-floor galleries.
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Hai-Wen Lin
Sunday, April 2nd 5:13- 7:31 pm, 2023
Photos courtesy the artist

Zoids have been a long-standing part of the Haas Brothers’ practice. Named after Dr. Zoidberg, a primary character in Ma...
06/05/2026

Zoids have been a long-standing part of the Haas Brothers’ practice. Named after Dr. Zoidberg, a primary character in Matt Groening’s animated series Futurama, beloved by the brothers growing up. The character’s octopus-like mouth with tentacles has become a recurring form in the brothers’ work. In their more recent Zoid series, Emergent Zoidbergs, they use a 3D computer graphics program to create an animation where the two biomorphic shapes writhe, wriggle, undulate, and intertwine in infinite permutations. The duo captures still images from animated footage and selects specific moments to transform into physical sculptures.

Visit Haas Brothers: Uncanny Valley this weekend to see several of these works out in the wild!
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Image Credit:
Haas Brothers
Cyberzoid 3, 2023
3D-printed nylon, automotive paint, and glow in the dark blown glass

Happy Pride! Join Barbara Paris Gifford, MAD Senior Curator of Art, Craft and Design, next Thursday, June 11, for a tour...
06/01/2026

Happy Pride! Join Barbara Paris Gifford, MAD Senior Curator of Art, Craft and Design, next Thursday, June 11, for a tour of the exhibition OUT of the Jewelry Box and Jewelry Stories, an installation of nearly 100 works from MAD’s collection of modern and contemporary art jewelry. OUT of the Jewelry Box considers the importance of q***r perspectives in studio and contemporary art jewelry. The exhibition showcases an extraordinary gift from Ron Porter and Joe Price, who have collected and worn art jewelry throughout their forty-one-year relationship, nine of those legally married.

Tap the link below to reserve your spot.

https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/out-jewelry-box

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