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
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.
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
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
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
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
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.