Our current exhibition Redefining Redesigning Fashion: Designs for Sustainability has been a hit! Our attendance for the exhibition has been great but if you have not seen it yet, you only have 2 more weeks. It will be closing May 26th. I highly recommend seeing all the wonderful objects in person if you are able. But if for some reason you cannot make it here before it is gone you now have the option to view the exhibition online! Check out this new link on our website! It features the winning designs with descriptions and images of all the objects. It also informs you about the themes that were used to define how the objects are sustainable.

Click here for the website.
Click here for the website exhibition link.

While our current gallery exhibition "Redefining, Redesigning Fashion" focuses on loaned objects, a number of works from the GMD's collections are on display in the offices of McNeal Hall. Each year, a series of "mini-exhibitions" are featured in locations throughout the University of Minnesota's design facilities. These exhibitions focus on often-overlooked aspects of the collection.

Design, Housing, and Apparel Administrative Offices, McNeal 240 -- VICTORIAN MOURNING WEAR (left)
When her beloved husband Prince Albert died of typhoid in 1861, England's Queen Victoria entered a 40-year mourning period, unwittingly inspiring an international fashion trend. Black, representing the absence of light and life, was chosen to reflect the mourner's loss. In addition to black dresses, mourners wore black hats, gloves, shoes, handkerchiefs, and jewelry. Though commonly made from jet, such jewelry was also made from locks of the deceased's hair. These morbid fashions were supplied by mourning warehouses - empires built on strict social etiquette and superstitions regarding the bad luck brought by recycling mourning apparel.

College of Design Administrative Offices, McNeal 32 -- SECRET AGENT WOMAN (center)
A Rolex with built-in garrote. A rocket powered cigarette. A dagger-toed shoe.These are among the many gadgets that kept James Bond ranked among the world's deadliest spies. But why should Bond have all the fun? For centuries women have secretly amassed their own collections of gadgets.Tucked away in tiny clutches, these gadgets were designed to both kill and thrill. One never knew what a night on the town might require: a blowtorch inspired lighter, a clandestine notepad, or a pocket knife in the shape of a shoe.

GMD Administrative Offices, McNeal 364 - HERE BY DESIGN (right)
This collection of digitally fabricated letters was featured in the 2007 exhibition, "Here by Design III: Process and Prototype," which explored the effects of digital fabrication on the creative process and design production in Minnesota. This was the third of a three-part exhibition (2001, 2003) highlighting local design ingenuity. A careful look reveals that these letters spell out "Here by Design." Designed by Rob Tickle and Dave Hultman, the letters were created with the latest in design technology at the Minneapolis-based firm, Industrial Art and Design.

-- Natasha Thoreson

Redefining, Redesigning Fashion
Goldstein Museum of Design Exhibition - January 19-May 26, 2013
Guest Curators: Marilyn DeLong, Barbara Heinemann, Kathryn Reiley

Last Saturday, 7 through 18 year-olds of the 4-H Urban Youth were part of an exciting and fun morning of activities, planned just for them. They gathered at the Goldstein Museum of Design to visit Redefining, Redesigning Fashion, an exhibition which explores how apparel designers and apparel consumers (everyone else) need to think about environmental, social and economic issues in clothing design and choices to help save the earth.

First, the 4-Hers had a scavenger hunt through the gallery to see how designers from around the world have conceptualized the future of apparel design. They learned about the themes of sustainable fashion design, as highlighted through the exhibition:

• Encouraging the human connection by valuing culture and heirlooms;
• Adding value through up-cycled clothing and accessories;
• Serving multiple needs with versatile garments;
• Valuing local and personal resources;
• Integrating alternative constructions and processes.

After the tour, they discussed how sustainability helps build a healthy and happy Earth. The students participated with comments and ideas.

Then, the 4-H youth picked one of three "Studio Classes." The Studio Class options were T-Shirt Playtime, Eco-Style Design, and Go-Green Accessories. Each class was just full of young designers!

In each Studio, 4-Hers were introduced to ideas, activities, and fashion-related crafts to ignite their imaginations about how sustainable choices can lead us to exciting ways to create clothing and individualized design ideas.

At the end of the day, the youth walked in a "Project Show" and struck a pose with their newly created eco-designs on the runway!

Fashion Avenue, Wet Paint, and Treadle Yard Goods Sponsor GMD's Exhibition on Sustainable Fashion that opens with a reception on January 18, 6-8 PM

For the exhibition Redefining, Redesigning Fashion: Designs for Sustainability, the Goldstein Museum of Design is pleased to have the financial and marketing support of these three popular Twin Cities retailers. Although occupying different niches, each is the "best of category" in the Twin Cities, each focuses on quality (an essential criterion for sustainability), and each has outstanding staff and service.

About the Exhibition

• Please come to the exhibition opening on Friday, January 18, 6-8 PM, McNeal Hall, Saint Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota. Free; Refreshments.

• Features 46 clothing designs by 30 different designers. A panel of judges chose from 200 entries the ones that best represent techniques for achieving sustainable fashion design.

• Designs range from whimsical (a dress made from colored pop-top tabs) to wearable (a little black dress made with no cutting and no waste of fabric).

• The exhibition is up through May 26. Gallery hours and directions: www.goldstein.design.umn.edu

• Lecture: on Thursday, February 21, Sandra Black, a noted sustainable fashion expert from London, will speak at 5 PM, 33 McNeal Hall. Free.

About the Sponsors

Fashion, Avenue the exhibition's Lead Sponsor, has two locations: 50th and France in Edina, and Lake Street in Wayzata. As the Twin Cities' leading upscale resale consignment shop selling only high- quality brand names and designers, Fashion Avenue is the opposite of "fast fashion." Its gently used selections are always current fashion and include clothing, handbags, purses, shoes, outerwear, jewelry, and accessories. The website describes their stores as "...not only a smart way to buy designer wear but to sustain the environment as well." www.fashionavenueresale.com

Wet Paint is an independent art materials store that has been on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul since 1976. Known for its huge selection (30,000 items) of high-quality materials that support art and design activities, Wet Paint is a resource for information about art and design events and classes in the Twin Cities and a locus for such groups as the Metro Sketchers. www.wetpaintart.com

Treadle Yard Goods Also on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul, Treadle Yard Goods is an independent retailer established in 1976 that specializes in beautiful natural fiber fabrics, unique buttons, notions, and patterns. Treadle also offers sewing classes and sewing machine repair. www.treadleyardgoods.com

Would you or your company like to explore sponsorship of a GMD exhibition? Go to www.goldstein.design.umn.edu and click on Get Involved/donate/sponsor.

In this season of political dialogue, join us for "Design and Political Communication," a lively panel discussion and reception Wednesday, October 24, at 6:00pm, 22 McNeal Hall. The exhibition "We the Designers: Reframing Political Issues in the Age of Obama" will be open in 241 McNeal until 6:30pm. Light refreshments will be served.

Above: Christopher Brand: American, b. 1985 I.O.U. 2011 Digital Print 60 x 43 in.

Politicians, journalists and pundits use language. Graphic designers use visual language. Drawing on two realms, designers unite visual and verbal content in compelling communication. In a divisive era, when words alone have not been enough, can the power of design help unite citizens on the issues? Thirty one participating contemporary graphic designers wield opinion and analysis to inform and persuade about the unique issues facing the Obama administration, among whom are College of Design Associate Professor Daniel Jasper and Professor Steven McCarthy.

Above:Timothy Goodman: American, b. 1980 OH... 2008 Photograph of marker on post-its/inkjet print 24 x 11.5 in.

The panel will consist of:

David Brauer, MinnPost local media reporter
Daniel Jasper, associate professor graphic design
Steven McCarthy, professor graphic design
Facilitator: Trevor Miller, College of Design director of external affairs (former senior aide and political & communications director for the re-election campaign of Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisc.)

Come be a part of the discussion about how graphic design and politics are related!

This program sponsored in part by:
Graphiculture
Spunk Design Machine
Media sponsor--Radio K

In four separate programs on June 19 and 21, fifty-five Gopher Camp students significantly raised the energy level in the gallery during their visits to the exhibition, Quest for the World's Best Baskets. Each group had fun putting stars on a world map to note where the baskets in the exhibition came from. Before leaving, each student put a red paper heart next to their favorite basket.

The children paid rapt attention as exhibition curator Suzi McArdle walked them around the gallery like a pied piper, charming them with stories about baskets from Panama, South Africa, Ethiopia, Alaska, the American Southwest, and Appalachia.

Younger students made baskets out of paper to help them understand one method of basket-weaving.

Older students competed with each other on a paper-and-pencil "scavenger hunt," seeking out the biggest and smallest baskets, the basket with the most animals, three baskets depicting birds, and baskets showing people.

Suzi and Kathleen Campbell enjoyed teaming up to present these programs, and look forward to the next four groups of Gopher Adventures students on July 10 and 12.

The exhibition showcases about 200 baskets from around the world, a fraction of the baskets that collector Nancy Schermer gathered during her world travels. The exhibition offers exuberant color and toothy texture. Part of the appeal is the diversity, ranging from Crayola-colorful telephone wire baskets created by the Zulu people of South Africa, to subtle brown and ivory split ash and sweet grass baskets fashioned by artists in American's Appalachia.

The baskets range widely in size. Miniature baskets from the Darien rainforest in Panama are so tiny and tightly-woven that a hummingbird could sip from them. An Ethiopian ritual basket is so large that a small child could hide under it. Many baskets have intensely beautiful geographic patterns, but the pictorial baskets may steal the show. Macaws, parrots, and monkeys pose on baskets made by the Embera and Wounaan peoples of the Darien Rainforest of Panama. Butterflies and ponies move in a circle around the face of flat Hopi baskets. Butterflies, beetles, and snakes crowd each other uneasily on a Zulu basket. This dazzling exhibition is up through September 9, 2012.

We are pleased that our marketing partner for this exhibition is The Grand Hand Gallery, a store in St. Paul specializing in hand-made objects that span the bridge between craft and art. The Grand Hand's owner, Ann Ruhr Pifer, just opened a collaborative exhibition, American Baskets: from Traditional to Contemporary, from Coast to Coast. It features the work of six basket artists: Tari Kerss, Martha Monson Lowe, Sharon Meyer Postance, Ann Hall Richards, Linda Sorem, and Tressa Sularz (through July 8 at The Grand Hand, 618 Grand Avenue, St. Paul; thegrandhand.com). See our joint ad in the June/July issue of American Craft, magazine of the American Craft Council.

Kathleen Campbell, GMD

Top left: A subtly-colored Appalachian basket
Bottom left: Pictorial basket by the Zulu people of South Africa
Bottom right: Pictorial basket by the Embera-Wounaan people of the Darien Rainforest in Panama

The exhibition Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 10th and runs through August 19th. The exhibition will compare the works of Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, showcasing Schiaparelli's designs between the 1920s and 1950s and Prada's designs beginning in the late 1980s. The Met has borrowed Schiaparelli's bark dress from GMD to show in the exhibition.

The exhibition's title is an allusion to a popular column, "Impossible Interviews", which was published in Vanity Fair during the 1930s. The column featured imaginary interviews between improbable individuals, including Joseph Stalin and Elsa Schiaparelli. The curators, Andrew Bolton and Harold Koda realized that Schiaparelli most likely would have been unwilling to share an exhibition with another designer, and Prada probably would refuse to be compared to one of her contemporaries.

Schiaparelli was born in 1890 in Rome and Prada was born in 1949 in Milan. Despite temporal distance, their lives have many parallels. Both were raised in wealthy, strictly Catholic families and both had fathers who were university professors. Neither ever learned to sew, but are two of the twentieth century's most important designers. Schiaparelli and Prada both are known for avant-garde designs and refusing to capitulate to common ideas about what constitutes beauty.

Check out the exhibition, or search for more examples of Schiaparelli's designs on GMD's collection database.

Learn more about Impossible Conversations: Read Radical Chic from The New Yorker, and Vogue article Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: Talk to Her.

UPDATE: Check out this photo of this piece in the exhibition

By Caitlin Cohn, Collections Assistant at GMD, and graduate student in the College of Design pursuing a PhD in Dress, History, and Culture

It has recently become clear how difficult judging is; although we are no Project Runway, choosing one graphic design package from 18 diverse student projects is no easy task. This semester, Daniel Jasper's GDES 2351 Text and Image course worked with GMD to create marketing materials for the upcoming exhibition Quest for the World's Best Baskets. GMD supplied the students with professional images of the baskets and information about their origins and the exhibition. Each student created a poster, postcard, banner and text panel, all presented as one cohesive marketing theme from each student.

The process began with each student creating three drafts of a poster design. Each of the three designs represented a communications idea that could be applied to the other marketing materials. During a class session the students presented their three drafts, allowing GMD staff and guest curator Suzi McArdle to choose one of the three options for the student to continue working on. In a class of 18 students, and 54 draft designs, it was both exciting to see such a wide variety, and challenging to choose only one for each student. Through discussing and asking questions of each student, we were able to give them an idea of how to move forward. The students each gave a final presentation, speaking about the reasoning behind the campaign they created, followed by questions from GMD staff and McArdle.

We would like to recognize the top five students and winner: Scott Campbell, Jill Geldaker, Liz Qi, Brody Steineck, and winner Katie Moraczewski. Although the top five pieces are all very different, we were intrigued by each of their designs for different reasons. Liz's is fun and fresh, while Scott's is traditional and elegant, Jill's is colorful and detailed while Brody's is thought provoking; each of the 18 students took the time to create great designs. Ultimately we found that Katie's bold and contrasting designs had a simple and professional look that stood out from our previous marketing materials. We look forwarding to working with Jasper's classes next year, and although it is always a difficult choice, it is always a joy to see an array of designs from the students.

By Jenny Parker: Goldstein Museum of Design Graduate Assistant, MFA candidate in Graphic Design and Museum Studies

Leonard Parker: An Architect's Architect
Friday, March 23, 6-8pm
HGA Gallery, Rapson Hall, Minneapolis Campus
Light refreshments served
sponsored by the College of Design School of Architecture, AIA Minnesota, and GMD

Leonard Parker's contribution to the College of Design's School of Architecture and Twin Cities' architecture is virtually unparalleled. In a career that included several decades of teaching in the School of Architecture, Parker showed generations of students not only how to become skilled designers, but also how to work in ways that would help ensure their own success in the profession.

Parker was also counted among the most prominent architects in the Twin Cities, establishing successful architecture firm The Leonard Parker Associates (TLPA) in 1958. TLPA designed many functional and handsome Minnesota landmarks, some of which include the University of Minnesota Law School (1978), the Minneapolis Convention Center (1989 & 2002), and the Minnesota Judicial Center (1998).

Linda Mack noted in a StarTribune article after Parker's passing, "Parker's death signals the end of an era. He was one of the young Modernists who shaped postwar Minnesota. Along with his peers James Stageberg, Bruce Abrahamson and John Rauma and their mentor Ralph Rapson (all deceased), he studied with the European giants who brought the International Style to America. Form follows function was their mantra. Architecture was their love."

Hanging on a wall in his office are many personal quotes, one of which reads, "Find out what you're here to do. Do the best you possibly can. And do it all the time." He was an inspiration to the lives that he touched, and continues to inspire architecture through his work.

Please join us in celebrating Leonard Parker's life, work, and legacy.

By Jenny Parker: GMD Graduate Assistant, and James Dozier: GMD Program Director, HGA Gallery