Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

This film follows American Industrial Photographer, Christopher Payne as he visits 3 industrial factories where he reminisces, recollects and photographs these spaces and what they mean to him. This film will be displayed 2026 at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum for its exhibition titled “Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne”, an exhibition featuring Payne’s intricately detailed photography of America’s factories. “Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne,” an exhibition featuring Payne’s intricately detailed photography of America’s factories. On view from Dec. 12 through Sept. 27, 2026, the exhibition brings together more than 70 large-format photographs captured by Payne over a decade-long photographic journey to learn more about the craft of both industrial and artisanal making in the United States.

Join Cooper Hewitt for this illustrated talk on the Royal Pavilion at Brighton by curator and scholar Alexandra Loske. First constructed as a royal residence for King George IV, when Prince of Wales, the Royal Pavilion was remodeled by John Nash with interiors by Frederick Crace and Robert Jones between 1815–1822. Cooper Hewitt is home to many of Craces’ original drawings for the Pavilion, which feature fanciful representations of Chinese culture, design, and people. Loske will discuss the Pavilion’s interiors as a late example of British neoclassical chinoiserie, while investigating how the idea of China and chinoiserie designs evolved from the 18th to the early 19th century. Jamie Kwan, Cooper Hewitt’s Assistant Curator of Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design, will moderate this talk.

Join Cooper Hewitt for an illustrated talk exploring a selection of Chinese export paintings from the museum’s department of Drawings, Prints & Graphic Design. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Canton (modern-day Guangzhou) became an important center of trade and artistic production. Drawing from both European and traditional Chinese techniques and media, Cantonese artists and artisans developed distinct types of painting that were made specifically for the foreign market. This program will provide an overview of the materials and techniques as well as the history of export gouaches. The diverse range of subject matter, including botanicals, birds and insects, genre scenes, still-lifes, and interiors, will be shown. Through exploring these paintings in Cooper Hewitt’s collection, participants will learn the rich history of these works and their role in disseminating ideas of “the Orient” to European and North American consumers and shaping the development of Chinoiserie, a 18th-century decorative style that emerged from the fascination with Chinese art and material goods.

Join Cooper Hewitt for the next Making Home Saturday Series where we consider the hidden homes of our DNA with artist and biohacker Dr. Heather Dewey-Hagborg. In Session 1, Dewey-Hagborg will discuss her installation and soundtrack for Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, which explores the architectural and cultural footprint of so-called “biobanks.” Filled with biological samples routinely collected at hospitals and medical centers, biobanks house and preserve our medical specimens for public and private research, often conducted with minimal informed consent. Dewey-Hagborg will tell the story of her own investigative efforts to discover her “blood spot card”—the blood drawn at birth from every newborn to be screened for disorders. This program shares a more scientific interpretation of home, inviting participants to ponder how these repositories store genetic and health information on millions of Americans. After her presentation, Dewey-Hagborg will be joined by biologist Katayoun Chamany for a brief conversation addressing the potential lives of our DNA at the intersection of surveillance, cutting-edge science, privacy, and legal and ethical concerns. SPEAKERS Dr. Heather Dewey-Hagborg is a New York-based artist and biohacker who is interested in art as research and technological critique. Dewey-Hagborg has shown work internationally at events and venues including the World Economic Forum, the Daejeon Biennale, the Guangzhou Triennial, the Shenzhen Urbanism and Architecture Biennale, Transmediale, the Walker Center for Contemporary Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and PS1 MoMA. Her work is held in public collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and SFMOMA, among others, and has been widely discussed in the media, from the New York Times and the BBC to Artforum and Wired. Dewey-Hagborg has a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is an Artist-in-Residence at the Exploratorium and is an affiliate of Data & Society. She is a founding board member of Digital DNA, a European Research Council funded project investigating the changing relationships between digital technologies, DNA, and evidence. Katayoun Chamany is the Mohn Family Professor of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Professor of Biology in the Interdisciplinary Science program of Eugene Lang College and the Director of the Academic Science Labs at The New School. Trained as geneticist and cell biologist, she uses a STREAMD framework (STEM + Arts +Design+ Responsibility) to develop curricula that promotes ethical and responsible use of biotechnologies through provocation. As a Leadership Fellow for Science for New Civic Engagements and Social Responsibilities (SENCER), she designed the open access Stem Cells Across the Curriculum in collaboration with colleagues in the humanities, social sciences, policy, and design. For her contributions and leadership she has received The New School Distinguished University Teaching Award and University Social Justice Teaching Award, the Eugene Lang College Excellence In Faculty Advising Award, the William E. Bennett Award for Extraordinary Accomplishments in Citizen Science from SENCER, and the John A. Moore Award for Science as a Way of Knowing from the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. She received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1996.

The Black Artists + Designers Guild (@badguild) is a community of independent Black makers working in a range of creative industries. Their installation, “The Underground Library,” can be found on the first floor of “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, in the room that once housed Andrew Carnegie’s personal library. Inspired by the Underground Railroad—the clandestine network established in the early 19th century through which many enslaved African Americans traveled in their search for freedom—this library is an interactive space, a 21st-century sanctuary brimming with books, art, and artifacts relating to Black history and culture. Here, BADG member Jomo Tariku (@jomotariku) reflects on how the Guild aimed to redefine the idea of a library through their final installation. Be sure to experience “Making Home” before it closes August 10—tap the link in our bio to plan your visit to Cooper Hewitt.

The Black Artists + Designers Guild (@badguild) is a community of independent Black makers working in a range of creative industries. Their installation, “The Underground Library,” can be found on the first floor of “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial, in the room that once housed Andrew Carnegie’s personal library. Inspired by the Underground Railroad—the clandestine network established in the early 19th century through which many enslaved African Americans traveled in their search for freedom—this library is an interactive space, a 21st-century sanctuary brimming with books, art, and artifacts relating to Black history and culture. Here, BADG member Leyden Lewis (@leydenlewisdesignstudio) discusses how the past and present intersect in the Guild’s final installation. Be sure to experience “Making Home” before it closes August 10—tap the link in our bio to plan your visit to Cooper Hewitt.