Museum of Arts & Design: Beyond + Why?
"Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art" and "Why? 25 Case Studies"
The Museum of Arts and Design in New York is located directly across the street from the Museum of Modern Art, and lives completely in its shadow. You know it's a bad sign when the gift shop is more crowded than the museum. I should have known better, but went blithely ahead into the (3 count 'em 3) galleries. Red light number two was when the guard responded, upon questioning, that it might take 30 minutes tops to see everything.
According to the curators of the museum: "For nearly half a century, the
Museum of Arts & Design has served as the country's premier institution
dedicated to the collection and exhibition of contemporary objects
created in clay, glass, wood, metal and fiber. The Museum celebrates
materials and processes that are today embraced by artists in the fields
of craft, art and design." Oddly enough, the main show consisted
primarily of conceptual installation art. Unfortunately, I had already
seen a few of the works displayed in "Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable
Art." The personal solar cell cleverly disguised as a messenger bag (for
phones, iPods, and PDAs) was interesting, but left my designer friend
was sore about being mislead by the name of the museum. The other
exhibition was an eclectic mix of pig-bladder jewelry and nice
glassware. Oddly enough, it was called "Why? 25 Case Studies" - and
that's exactly what the entire museum left me thinking : "Why?"
You can't even take pictures inside. Not that you'd really want to.
