On View

2023-24: Making, Remaking, Repair


For the 2023-24 exhibition season, the Center for Design and Material Culture is delighted to present a range of exhibitions and programs surrounding the theme “Making, Remaking, Repair.” Through five engaging exhibitions in the Ruth Davis Design Gallery and Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery, these projects will explore contemporary and historic American and global craft making, remaking historic textiles from fiber to form, and design thinking strategies for re-interpreting objects in the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection. Students from the Design Studies program will also share work from their coursework in two season finale exhibitions, including the thesis work of three MFA students. We look forward to you learning and engaging with us throughout the year.

2023-24 Season

Social Threads: Making, Mending, and Maintaining Community

Graphic with a red, orange, brown, and blue quilt in the background and the words Social Threads in the foreground

Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery
September 13 – December 3, 2023

Social Threads: Making, Mending and Maintaining Community brings together objects from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection that exemplify how textiles constitute and sustain communities.

Photograph of a colorful broom resting on brown broomcorn with text under that reads "Heart, Head, and Hand: Making and Remaking at Berea College Student Craft."Ruth Davis Design Gallery
October 18, 2023 – March 3, 2024

Heart, Head, and Hand: Making and Remaking at Berea College Student Craft explores what it means to make on campus—and the power of design and craft to inspire creativity across disciplines.

Remaking the Renaissance

Photo of a hand holding a looking glass over a textile pointing at a red velvet textile with a gold and blue figural textile on topLynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery
February 7, 2024 – May 19, 2024

Remaking the Renaissance offers a fresh take on this iconic period of textile and fashion history, transforming the way we think about and see the cloth and clothing of the early modern period.

Tangible Secrets

detail photo of light red and dark red woven fibers with a white background

Esther Cho | MFA Thesis Exhibition
Ruth Davis Design Gallery

March 21 – April 12, 2024

In Tangible Secrets, Cho investigates collected secrets as palpable material and explores the contemporary application of jiseung, a traditional Korean paper-weaving craft.

Inside Out

photo of white and cream transparent paper stitched together with brown thread

Heather Kohlmeier | MFA Thesis Exhibition
Ruth Davis Design Gallery

March 21 – April 12, 2024

Inside Out is an exploration of our bodily experience in this life. Using delicate handmade and hand-dyed paper Kohlmeier creates works evoking different sensations or moments for contemplation within the viewer.

THE LINE ALONG THE KNOT

Sepia photo of a hand with the palm facing up under a series of white loops

Veronica Y Pham | MFA Thesis Exhibition
Ruth Davis Design Gallery

March 21 – April 12, 2024

My MFA thesis exhibition focuses on traditional craft processes including, Vietnamese papermaking, Chinese knotting, and netting that reexamines a personal connection to these processes while asking significant broader questions around migration, cyclical histories, and multi-cultural identity.