Cooper Hewitt Announces New Digital-First Curatorial Department

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York has announced the formation of its new Digital department. Since the organization’s founding in 1897, its vast curatorial network has been branched across four distinct departments: Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design; Product Design and Decorative Arts; Wallcoverings; and Textiles. This is the first time the museum has introduced a new department in more than 125 years. This initiative comes at a time when creators are frequently crafting design works across various digital mediums, according to the museum.

Leading the department is Andrea Lipps, founding head of digital and associate curator of contemporary design. “Digital work challenges us to rethink museum practices around collecting, stewardship, and display,” Lipps said in a Cooper Hewitt press release. “We are developing new and exciting methods of preservation and presentation while envisioning ways to provide greater public access to this collection. I’m thrilled the museum has formalized the Digital department, positioning us to effectively and responsibly collect born-digital work, and I’m honored to lead these efforts.”

Lipps’s team will also focus on areas including interaction design, data visualization, information architecture, digital animation, digital typography, interface design, and artificial intelligence. So far, the museum has curated 70 file- and code-based digital works in the department’s Digital collection. Take a look at some pieces from the team’s curated collection, below.