The team here at the Goldstein is busy installing our upcoming exhibition in Gallery 241 at McNeal Hall. Pattern Stories: Printed Textiles will be open to the public starting this Saturday, June 15, and will run through August 25.


The exhibition celebrates the skill and ingenuity of printed textile designers, both well-known and anonymous. The items in Pattern Stories were made using a broad range of techniques, including block printing, etching, roller printing, screen printing, discharge printing, and digital printing. Whether intended for a wall hanging, a dress, or even a shoe, a printed design can imbue an object with many layers of meaning. Come and explore the stories that these patterns tell!

Jean McElvain (above) putting some finishing touches on an ensemble before it makes the trip down to the gallery. For some fascinating insights on how objects were selected and prepared for the exhibition, join Jean and Kathleen Campbell (co-curators) for a Curatorial Tour on Thursday, June 27, at 6pm in Gallery 241.


Below, Eunice Haugen in the gallery preparing to install a wall hanging. Once this step is complete, labels will be hung and a team will fine-tune the lighting. Then we'll be ready to open our doors to the public!

The exhibition features several printed sundresses. Maybe it will even be warm and sunny this Saturday so that you can wear your favorite printed dress to the gallery!

Posted by Goldstein Museum of Design at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

l tor: Roald, Margot, Lin, Mark


On May 29th, GMD presented the first Margot Siegel Design Award to Roald Gundersen at Palace Suites in Miami, Florida, where Margot lives. GMD director Lin Nelson-Mayson and CDes development director Mark Hintz presented Roald with the award check for $2,000 and thanked Margot for her philanthropy and support. Over fifty people attended the program and heard Roald talk about his life and work.


Roald is founder, co-owner and principal architect of WholeTrees Architecture + Structures in Stoddard, Wisconsin. He received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Environmental Science from University of Minnesota in 1984. Over the last 20 years, he has explored building with small diameter round timber. He co-founded Whole Trees and built round timber assemblies into passive solar greenhouses, residences, an eco-tourism resort, restaurants, educational facilities and an office building.


Of all the nominations received, Roald was unanimously recommended by the Selection Committee, professional designers who are members of GMD's Advisory Board. The Committee noted that Roald's thoughtful and sustainable work embodied the vision of the Siegel Award - to honor designers who demonstrate design excellence and innovation to enhance the quality of life.



Driftless farmhouse interior


Margot is a 1944 graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree from the College of Liberal Arts in journalism. She was the founder of the Friends of the Goldstein and a significant contributor of objects to the collection. She served as guest curator of an exhibition honoring the impact of her mother on Twin Cities' fashion and was herself the focus of a GMD exhibition on fashion and art. In 2009, she was the recipient of the University of Minnesota's Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition to the Siegel Design Award, she also founded the Siegel Apparel Care Fund for collection preservation and care.


Nominations for the second Siegel Design Award will be accepted starting in September 2013.

—Lin Nelson-Mayson, GMD director

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As Gallery 241 is transitioning to a new exhibition (Printed Textiles: Pattern Stories, June 15 - August 25), GMD is also "changing the guard" with Communications Assistants. I am Emily Marti and will be GMD's Communications Assistant for the next year. I have the pleasure of picking up this blog after Sharlene's good-bye post.

I am a Master of Fine Arts candidate in Graphic Design with a minor in Product Design. In the fall, I will begin my third and final year of the MFA and will be working on my thesis, exploring ways in which sustainability can be pursued through graphic design and product design.

Before moving to Minnesota, I lived in Bloomington, Indiana for several years after completing a Bachelor's degree in Viola Performance and Studio Art at Indiana University. Until I began grad school, I split my time between teaching and performing music and doing graphic design work for non-profits including a theater, a public library and the Indiana Geological Survey. After I complete my MFA, I hope to embark on a career that balances music and public interest design.

While I have been fascinated by exhibit design and museums in general for as long as I can remember, this is the first time I have actually had the opportunity to work for one. I am thrilled to be in a position where I can explore what GMD has to offer and share with you some of what I learn along the way.

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Each year two graduate students are given the opportunity to work at GMD. I was lucky enough to have the position of Communication Assistant at GMD for the past year. Before working at the Goldstein, a career involving museums never crossed my mind. However over the past year I found that I really enjoy being a part of all that is required to maintain a museum.

As the Communication Assistant my main responsibility was all things associated with the PR for the museum, which encompassed a wide range of tasks. I started my experience at GMD with a crash course in designing labels for the exhibition Quest for the World's Best Baskets. The exhibition included over 300 baskets and the InDesign software was crashing about every hour, creating some panic on whether they would be done in time. I then took part in the planning and execution of GMD's fall benefit Mad About Design while being able to wear a dress designed by Lily Pulitzer. I also produced three magazines, designed numerous items for the museum, and tried my hand at web design among many other things.

I have truly enjoyed and consider myself fortunate for the time I had at GMD. Beyond the tasks that I accomplished the people I was able to work with were beyond wonderful and helped me grow and learn in my position and also in the classroom.

I am sad to go yet excited to see how the next chapter in my life unfolds and how my time at GMD will help me in my future.

-Sharlene Balik, Master of Arts in Graphic Design

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May 2 and May 4 were busy days at the Goldstein. The GMD staff, membership committee, and several lovely student volunteers joined forces to present a spring Behind the Scenes Tour and Tea. We planned, curated, baked, ironed the linens, polished the silver, and worked together to transform the fireplace room in the College of Design into a pretty restaurant-like setting for the English Tea.

The event attracted dozens of new members who enjoyed all they saw going on at GMD. They visited our storage facilities, spent time viewing our current exhibit in the gallery, and studied a small collection of exquisite 1920s clothing and objects presented by Jean McElvain, Assistant Curator of GMD.The event was topped off with a delicious tea service of scones, clotted cream, tarts, pudding, sandwiches, and five kinds of tea! Lin Nelson-Mayson closed the event with an introduction to GMD and a slide presentation for our new members highlighting the Museum's collection. Everyone left energized by the event and enthused about the organization they now belong to!

We loved the clothes, shoes and hats so much! It was very inspirational... We really enjoyed the specific pieces that were pulled for display, and our group had a lot of questions. It was so much fun to go into the wardrobes and see the rows of cabinetry, and our leader who pulled out a few pieces to explain them to us was knowledgeable and interesting. Our group was full of interesting people with in-depth questions, wanting to see the lining, stitching, detail and noticing every little design and layer, hem length and button, and asking questions about hair styles and eras and all.

--Attendee Comments

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