2024-25: Work In Progress
For the 2024-25 exhibition season, the Center for Design and Material Culture is hosting a range of exhibitions and programs on things “In Progress” – and on the creative communities and processes that made those things possible.
2024-25 Season
It’s All the Rage: Activism, Aging, and the Raging Grannies of Madison
Nancy Nicholas Hall Link and 3rd Floor
September 16, 2024 – March 23, 2025
It’s All the Rage: Activism, Aging, and the Raging Grannies of Madison grows from a two-year archival and oral history project. This exhibit focuses on several decades of local Wisconsin grassroots activism enacted by the Madison and Dane County Raging Grannies. Featuring an array of granny hats, aprons, songbooks, political buttons, and instruments, as well as video and audio clips of their original songs and engaging stories, this exhibit explores how senior women have engaged in a wide variety of protest activities. Raging Grannies performances center human dignity, democratic values, and inclusivity, along with gender and racial equality. It’s All the Rage explores the past, present and future of this organization, with a focus on the community, engagement with social justice issues, and the friendships formed in the process.
Material Intelligence
Ruth Davis Design Gallery
October 16, 2024 – March 9, 2025
Material Intelligence magazine, published by the Chipstone Foundation, celebrates the human capacity to understand and shape the physical world around us. Inspired by the magazine’s exploration of individual commonplace materials, this exhibition foregrounds two key substances–linen and glass–and invites visitors to experiment with many more. Threads explores the metaphorical vibrancy of linen and other fibers through the work of Ann Coddington. Spheres of Influence reveals how the material possibilities of glass and the embodied skills of glassmakers have shaped intellectual life at UW-Madison. Taken together, these installations reveal the Material Intelligence that connects makers and materials across time and media. The Work in Progress Lab in the rear of the gallery invites visitors to explore these material relationships and others for themselves. Please see our workshop schedule for more information.
Afterlives: Material Stories from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection
Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery
February 5 – May 11, 2025
Afterlives explores the many lives of objects and what happens to textiles after they enter the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection. From a child’s feed sack dress lovingly crafted and then saved on a family farm to an intricate robe from Turkmenistan that traveled halfway around the world, material things carry traces of people and things through the past, present, and future in our Collection. Both poetic and practical, the exhibition explores what these treasures can teach us if we pay attention to their stories.
Support for this exhibition comes from the Anonymous Fund.
Best in Cloth: A Yearbook in Design
Ruth Davis Design Gallery
April 16 – May 11, 2025
The UW-Madison School of Human Ecology Textile and Fashion Design (TFD) 2025 Showcase will feature the work of upper-level TFD undergraduates. Each student will curate their own space creating a mini-exhibition of their strongest work. From garments to woven, dyed and embellished textiles to three-dimensional pieces, installations and video, this exhibition will celebrate the breadth of creative exploration in the Textile and Fashion Design program.