Design Museums

A selection of design museums and museums with design collections, organized by state and country.

Design Museums in New York

The Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design and Culture

18 West 86th Street
New York
[bgc.bard.edu/exhibit/index.shtml]

Mostly known as a graduate institution affiliated with Bard College, the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design and Culture presents two to three exhibitions annually devoted to decorative arts and design. In addition, BGC maintains a 40,000-volume research library on all aspects of the decorative arts, design, cultural history, garden and landscape history, and related disciplines. They also hold an extensive collection of periodicals, slides, and videotapes.

Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum

2 East 91st Street
New York
[cooperhewitt.org]

Founded in 1897 by Amy, Eleanor, and Sarah Hewitt—granddaughters of industrialist Peter Cooper—and accommodated by the Andrew Carnegie Mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City, the Cooper-Hewitt is devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design collection includes more than 160,000 works created between the Renaissance and the present (all related to the history of European and American art and design); The Product Design and Decorative Arts collection houses some 40,000 3-D objects dating from antiquity to the 21st century; the Textiles department is home to more than 30,000 woven and non-woven works, and, with10,000-odd wallcoverings in their custody, the Cooper-Hewitt has the largest wallpaper collection in the United States. Their design library contains more than 70,000 volumes (books, periodicals, catalogs, and trade literature dating from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries), an archive of photographs, correspondence, promotional material, drawings and writings of American designers, a 6,500-volume rare book collection and more. Each year, the Cooper-Hewitt hosts the National Design Awards, an event conceived in 1997 to honor the best in American design. Today ten prizes are given: those for best in Architecture Design, a Special Jury Commendation and a Lifetime Achievement award are just a few.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue
New York
[metmuseum.org]

Even though the Met’s primary focus is art, a significant proportion of its holdings is devoted to design. The collection of American decorative arts extends in date from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century and includes approximately 12,000 examples of furniture, silver, glass, pewter, ceramics, and textiles, while the Costume Institute houses a collection of more than 30,000 costumes and accessories spanning five continents and as many centuries.

Museum of Arts and Design

40 West 53rd Street
New York
[madmuseum.org]

For nearly 50 years, the Museum of Arts & Design has been a leading American institution dedicated to the collection and exhibition of contemporary objects created in clay, glass, wood, metal and fiber. The Museum explores materials and methods used by contemporary practitioners in the fields of craft, art and design, as well as architecture, fashion, interior design, technology and performing arts.

The Museum at FIT

Fashion Institute of Technology
Seventh Avenue
New York
[fitnyc.edu]

Founded in 1967 to support educational programs at the Fashion Institute of Technology, The Museum at FIT is now a valuable NYC establishment dedicated to the art of fashion. Well known for its innovative exhibitions, the museum also holds an important collection of fashion and textiles, which it collects, conserves, documents and displays.

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

11 West 53rd Street
New York
[moma.org]

The Museum of Modern Art was the first museum in the world to house a curatorial department devoted to architecture and design. From its inception, in 1932, the collection has been built on the recognition that architecture and design are allied and interdependent arts. Including 28,000 works ranging from large-scale design objects to works on paper and architectural models, the Museum’s Architecture and Design collection surveys major figures and movements from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Starting with the reform ideology established by the Arts and Crafts movement, the collection covers major movements of the twentieth century and contemporary issues. The architecture collection documents buildings through models, drawings, and photographs, and includes the Mies van der Rohe Archive. The design collection comprises thousands of objects, ranging from appliances, furniture, and tableware to tools, textiles, sports cars—even a helicopter. The graphic design collection includes noteworthy examples of typography, posters, and other combinations of text and image.

The Noguchi Museum

9-01 33rd Road at Vernon Boulevard
New York
[noguchi.org]

Founded by Isamu Noguchi in 1985, The Noguchi Museum presents a wide-ranging collection of the artist’s works in clay metal, wood and stone, as well as models for public gardens, dance sets, and light sculptures. The Museum encompasses thirteen galleries within a converted factory building, encircled by a garden containing large-scale granite and basalt sculptures.