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Tuesday 10am - 4:30pm Wednesday 10am - 4:30pm Thursday 10am - 7pm Friday 10am - 4:30pm

Goldstein Museum of Design

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United States
Saint Paul, MN
Goldstein Museum of Design

Est. 1976
Academic museum at UMN College of Design. Education, exhibitions, and events based in McNeal Hall. McNeal Hall (1985 Buford Ave, St.

Study of GMD’s multidisciplinary design collection is available to students, faculty, K-12 and community groups, and researchers by appointment. Paul campus) contains the Goldstein Gallery, the Collection Research Center, and the administrative office. Additionally we have the HGA Gallery in Rapson Hall.

05/29/2026

Within the loaded discourse around fashion, body image, and styles deemed “flattering,” prevailing wisdom has long dictated that horizontal stripes widen while vertical stripes lengthen and slim. On view now in "Illusive Objects," this Chanel dress epitomizes that belief, deliberately switching from wide horizontal stripes on top to narrow vertical stripes below the bust. The design is intended to enhance the illusion of broader shoulders with a slimmer waist and longer legs.

Interestingly, the opposite effect has been asserted in academic studies. British psychologists in 2009 used three-dimensional female models to test the Helmholtz Illusion. (In 1925, Hermann von Helmholtz discovered that a square filled with horizontal lines appears taller and narrower than one with vertical lines.) Their findings showed that with two models of the same size, the one in horizontal stripes appeared thinner.

📍"Illusive Objects" is on view through July 2, 2026 in the Goldstein Gallery (McNeal Hall, level 2). Regular hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM and on Thursdays until 7:00 PM. Map and parking at z.umn.edu/gmd-visit.

🏷 Dress, 1978-1985. Chanel. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Miles (Shirley) Fiterman, 1992.035.019.

05/28/2026

Join us on Tuesday, June 2 at 5:00 PM for a free public program featuring Aimee Lagos, co-founder of Hygge & West! This event is in conjunction with our current exhibition Illusive Objects and in partnership with AIGA Minnesota.

Aimee's presentation will explore the history of wallpaper, its illusive properties, and relevant case studies in design and development at local home goods company Hygge & West.

🎟 Visit z.umn.edu/gmd-events to register. (Registration covers in-person and online attendance.)

📍In-person attendees will come to Room 10 in McNeal Hall (1985 Buford Ave, St. Paul), on the ground floor just to the right of the main atrium. First-time visitors can find a map and parking info at z.umn.edu/gmd-visit. The gallery will be open before and after the talk, until 7:00 PM. Snacks and beverages provided.

🌐 Online attendees will be emailed a zoom link after registration, before the event.

05/27/2026

On view now in "Illusive Objects," this stoneware vase tricks the eye with its basket-like appearance.

Weaving technology, which dates back thousands of years, creates planar, yet pliable materials with efficiency and regularity. For Kansas-based potter J. Edward Barker Jr., replicating a woven texture through carved stoneware was a one-time experiment. The title of this vase, Never Again…, reveals the painstaking process of achieving an even texture on rounded surfaces. The resulting vessel challenges our ability to distinguish between patterns created by subtractive methods (carving), and additive methods (overlapping strips of material).

📍"Illusive Objects" is on view through July 2, 2026 in the Goldstein Gallery (McNeal Hall, level 2). Regular hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM and Thursdays until 7:00 PM. Map and parking at z.umn.edu/gmd-visit.

🏷 The Never Again Weaving Motif on the Diagonal vase, 1999-2000. J. Edward Barker, Jr. Museum Purchase funded in part by the Friends of the Goldstein Gallery in memory of Timothy Trent Blade, 2000.031.001.

05/26/2026

On view now in "Illusive Objects" (and featured recently in The New York Times' "13 Garments That Changed Fashion"), the Delphos gown has long been considered an icon of early 20th-century artistic dress. While previously attributed to Venetian designer Mariano Fortuny, its design is now credited to his wife Henriette Negrin.

Named after the Charioteer of Delphi, a Greek statue of c. 470 BCE, and patented by Fortuny in 1909, it is made from woven silk that was pleated through a process never fully divulged. These slim-fitting gowns were supposedly worn with minimal or no undergarments and considered avant-garde for the period.

📍"Illusive Objects" is on view through July 2, 2026 in the Goldstein Gallery (McNeal Hall, level 2). Regular hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM and on Thursdays until 7:00 PM. Map and parking at z.umn.edu/gmd-visit.

🏷 Delphos evening gown and sash, 1910s-20s. Henriette Negrin and Mariano Fortuny. Anonymous Gift, 1984.014.020a-c.

05/21/2026

On view now in "Illusive Objects," the July/August 1979 issue of Push Pin Graphic magazine was dedicated to the theme of Grand Illusion.

💀 The selected spread includes the famous double-illusion image "All is Vanity," created in 1902 by American illustrator Charles Allan Gilbert (1873-1929).

🍪 The trompe l'oiel (eye-deceiving) illustration reproduced above the case is the center spread of the same issue, by Japanese artist Haruo Miyauchi.

Push Pin Graphic was the showcase magazine of the influential Push Pin Studios in New York, published between 1957 and 1980 and art directed by AIGA Medalist Seymour Chwast. This issue was designed by Richard Mantel and introduced by Managing Editor Ken Robbins: “Illusion is not quite a lie, nor is it yet a truth, but it exists in that paradoxical space betwixt the two extremes where lie the realms of love, magic, dreams, art, philosophy, and, of course, bu****it and narcolepsy.”

05/20/2026

Tomorrow we welcome, for the third year in a row, the Textile Center class Vintage-Inspired Fashion!

Instructor Colleen Kahn (pictured) and GMD curator Jean McElvain have selected a completely new slate of collection pieces to inspire the participants, who will create their own one-of-a-kind garments after close study here in McNeal Hall.

The selection, guided by novel construction techniques and innovative silhouettes, includes these designs by 1/2. Jane Derby (1958-1962), 3. Kenzo Takada (1980s), 4. Issey Mikaye (1983-5), 5. Pauline Trigere (1980s), 6. Marimekko (c. 2000), 7. André Courrèges (1965-1975), 8. Helga (1950s), and unknown (c. 1940).

05/14/2026

🎓 Happy UMN College of Design Commencement Day and congratulations to all of our graduating students!

This cap and gown graphic (repeated) comes from the 1939 UMN Home Economics yearbook, titled Minnecon in the 1930s-40s when the Goldstein sisters Harriet and Vetta were still teaching. Facing an aerial view of the St. Paul campus, the text "TODAY" concludes:

"The philosophy of life which has been emerging through the short histories past seems to offer an ideal for a well-ordered expression of human energy and purpose today. It will be the old school in a new light; a future of our own making. The world tomorrow is a result of the people today—now. For each of us life itself is an endless adventure, to phase the history of the time we are living."

05/06/2026

We can't wait to hear from our UMN College of Design faculty colleagues tomorrow at 5:00 PM in their first public presentation of research in 3D-printed ceramics and aquatic restoration. (Speaker Molly Reichert just won an Outstanding Research/Creative Scholarship award related to the new Digital Ceramics Lab!)

You can still register for in-person AND online attendance to this free, public program in conjunction with our current exhibition "Illusive Objects."

🗓 Thursday, May 7
🕔 5:00 PM (gallery open until 7:00 PM)
🎟 Register via z.umn.edu/gmd-events
📍McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Ave, St. Paul
🌐 Zoom link provided after registration

Speakers:
Molly Reichert, Associate Professor in Practice, Architecture
Jessica Rossi-Mastracci, Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture
May SunMin Hwang, Assistant Professor, Interior Design

05/01/2026

Goldy ❤ the Goldstein

Thanks for visiting UMN College of Design and our Goldstein Gallery, Goldy Gopher!

Follow in Goldy's pawsteps and see "Illusive Objects" in McNeal Hall, Tuesday–Friday between 10:00 AM and 4:30 PM (and until 7:00 PM on Thursdays).

04/29/2026

For ... this denim bikini (🤔) with matching jacket, and a reminder that GMD curator Jean McElvain's recent public talk on the History of Denim is available to all on our YouTube channel. (Just search Goldstein Museum.)

🏷 Bathing suit with jacket, Cole of California, 1965-70. Gift of Jeanne Corwin, 1999.033.016a-c.

Address

1985 Buford Avenue
Saint Paul, MN
55108

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	10am - 4:30pm
Thursday	10am - 7pm
Friday	10am - 4:30pm

Telephone

(612) 624-7434

Website

https://campsite.bio/goldsteinmuseum

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