SYMPOSIUM: Perspectives on Mid-Century California Design

Mingei International Museum
San Diego, CA
Mingei International Museum will present a symposium, “Perspectives on Mid-Century California Design”, on Saturday, June 27 from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Museum in Balboa Park. The program is offered in conjunction with its current exhibition, MASTERS OF MID-CENTURY CALIFORNIA MODERNISM – Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman. Reservations are $25 for members and students and $35 for non-members at 619-239-0003, ext. 405. Topics ranging from “The California Design Aesthetic” to “Heath Ceramics” and “San Diego Designer-Craftsmen at Mid-Century” will be presented by respected authorities including exhibition curators Jo Lauria and Dale Carolyn Gluckman, San Diego collectors and modernism website founders Dave Hampton (ObjectsUSA) and Keith York (ModernSanDiego.com) and the owners of Heath Ceramics, Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic. Gerard O’Brien, whose Reform Gallery in Los Angeles specializes in twentieth century decorative and fine art from the post-war period, with a concentration on California design, will present Julius Schulman’s photographs of the gallery’s 2005 exhibition “California Design 1956-1976,” and discuss the wide array of production and hand-crafted design that was part of that show. In addition, it is expected that Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman will attend with their daughter Laura Ackerman Shaw. Please allow time for parking.

Masters of Mid-Century California Modernism - Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman

Mingei International Museum
San Diego, CA
MASTERS OF MID-CENTURY CALIFORNIA MODERNISM is the first comprehensive retrospective of the works of Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman. The exhibition offers an overview of the Ackermans' 50-year collaborative partnership, focusing on their outstanding work in decorative art and design and highlighting their central role as designer-craftsmen who helped shape the California Mid-Century Modern style.

The Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-1971

Denver Art Museum
Denver, CO
Take a trip to the psychedelic era through 300 posters and the music, art, and culture that inspired their experimental design. The Psychedelic Experience includes works by the psychedelic poster movement’s major contributors, plus video, music, and activities that will transport you to Haight-Ashbury.

What Was Good Design? MoMA's Message 1944–56

Museum of Modern Art
New York, NY
At mid-century MoMA played a leading role in the definition and dissemination of so-called Good Design, a concept that took shape in the 1930s and emerged with new relevance in the decades following World War II. This installation presents selections from MoMA's design collection that illuminate the primary values of Good Design as promoted (and disputed) by museums, design councils, and department stores.

Cityscapes Revealed: Highlights from the Collection

National Building Museum
Washington, DC
This first-ever retrospective exhibition of the National Building Museum’s unique collection explores quintessentially American, 20th-century buildings from center-city mansions to main street storefronts and sleek downtown skyscrapers. Anchored by a series of large architectural elements, this walking tour of the cityscape is complemented by exquisitely detailed drawings; rare, early-20th-century photographs; and smaller-scale fragments from National Historic Landmarks—including the former U.S. Pension Building, the Museum’s extraordinary home.

Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s

National Building Museum
Washington, DC
Between 1933 and 1940 tens of millions of Americans visited world's fairs in cities across the nation. Designing Tomorrow will explore the modernist spectacles of architecture and design they witnessed -- visions of a brighter future during the worst economic crisis the United States had known. The fairs popularized modern design for the American public and promoted the idea of science and consumerism as salvation from the Great Depression.

Participating architects, eager for new projects at a time when few new buildings were being financed, populated the fairgrounds with an eclectic modern architecture. Pavilions housed innovative and dynamic exhibitions that paid tribute to factory production, technology, and speed. Exhibits forecasted the houses and cities of tomorrow and presented streamlined trains, modern furnishings, television, and talking robots.

A first-of-its-kind exhibition, Designing Tomorrow will feature nearly 200 never-before-assembled artifacts including building models, architectural remnants, drawings, paintings, prints, furniture, an original RCA TRK-12 television, Elektro the Moto- Man robot, and period film footage. The artifacts are drawn from the featured expositions: Chicago, IL—Century of Progress (1933–34); San Diego, CA—California-Pacific International Exposition (1935-1936); Dallas, TX—Texas Centennial Exposition (1936); Cleveland, OH—Great Lakes International Exposition (1936-1937); San Francisco, CA—Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-1940); and New York, NY—New York World's Fair (1939-1940).