Artist Birthday: Alvar Aalto
Alvar Aalto designed all of the furnishings for his buildings. Using native birch, Aalto designed a number of chairs and stools made entirely of bent plywood and laminated wood. He also invented some ...
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Curator's Corner
Black History Month: Gee's Bend Quilter
African American artists have had a tremendous influence on the miscellaneous arts in America since before the Civil War (1861–1865). The women of the Gee’s Bend community in Alabama have ...
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Curator's Corner
Gem of the Month: Lori Weitzner
Some of the major developments in the design world during the 2000s have involved the use of sustainable materials, ecologically friendly production processes, and upcycling otherwise wasted materials ...
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Curator's Corner
Furniture or Sculpture?
I took furniture history classes in grad school and even was a TA for the professor, so I learned to absolutely love studying the history of furniture. It seems to me, though, as our digital image col ...
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Curator's Corner
Reused Design Materials: Tejo Remy
I read a very disturbing article recently, which stated that a large percentage of the clothes we could donate for reuse ends up in landfills. This is disturbing because a lot of the materials do not ...
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Curator's Corner
What's New Is Old: Stainless Steel Art
I am a really big fan of art made from stainless steel, particularly in the field of the miscellaneous arts. Stainless steel tableware started being made early in the 1900s. At this time, Bauhaus ...
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Curator's Corner
Not an Easter Egg
On our planet, the egg has been almost universally viewed as a symbol of rebirth and fertility since ancient times (imagine ancient eyes seeing something living come out of something hard and apparent ...
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Curator's Corner
What's in a Snake 3: Poul Henningsen
Today’s post in my Snakes in Art series shifts to modern design. I guess a chair is an example of a good serpent! There’s something both ironic and logical in the combination of a serpent ...
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Curator's Corner
Heal's Mod Textile Designs
I vaguely (I’m lying) remember the word “mod” used during the late 1960s to describe anything that was slightly “edgy” (I hate that word) and “hip.” It encomp ...
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Curator's Corner
It's the Little Things in Life: Miscellaneous Arts
I despise the terms “decorative arts” and “minor arts” to categorize any art work that is not a painting, print, photograph, or sculpture. I prefer the word “miscellaneou ...
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