Previously On View: December 10, 2021 through March 19, 2023

See exhibitions currently on view.

This exhibition, curated by MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, was organized during the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic revealed what some have known for a long time: breathing is spatial. This fact has implications at the scale of the body, building, city, and planet. Everyone on Earth has been affected by the pandemic. Unequal access to housing, jobs, and health care ensured that COVID-19 hit marginalized communities harder than others.

This exhibition presents architectural case studies and historical narratives alongside creative design responses to COVID-19. Every designer, artist, doctor, engineer, or neighbor featured in the exhibition asked, “How can I help?” They used open-source collaboration, rapid-response prototyping, product hacking, and social activism to create medical devices, protective gear, infographics, political posters, architecture, and community services—all with the shared aspiration to reduce structural barriers that keep us from accessing the care we all deserve.

Highlights

A selection of objects featured in the exhibition.

Installation

Publications

     

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Curatorial team: MASS Design Group (Regina Chen, Jeffrey Mansfield, Michael Murphy, Morgan O’Hara and Maggie Stern). Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (Ellen Lupton, senior curator of contemporary design, and Julie Pastor, curatorial assistant)
Exhibition designer: MASS Design Group (Annie Wang)
Graphic designers: Span (Alyssa Arnesen and Bud Rodecker) and Rick Valicenti

Support

Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics is made possible with major support from Crystal and Chris Sacca.

Generous support is also provided by Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program Fund.

 

A screenshot of a data visualization of Wuhan China. Teal blue dots radiate out from a central point
Visualizing the Pandemic
Parsons School of Design/Cooper Hewitt Master’s Program in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies During the COVID-19 pandemic, designers, cartographers, and visual journalists visualized the invisible contours of an unfolding crisis. Organizations like The New York Times and Policy Map as well as individual artists and designers tracked the spread of the virus and...
Designing on the Front Lines, Season 2
DesignING on the Front Lines | Season 2 In this virtual forum, designers and doctors talk about designing better services, PPE, public spaces, and more in the age of COVID-19. Presented by the Health Design Lab at Thomas Jefferson University and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Season 1 took place in summer 2020. Moderated by...
In a dark rendered hallway, walls recede on both sides. An arrow pointing to an open door at the end of the hall is captioned Room 938.
A Cluster Of 17 Cases: Online
This interactive experience explores how 17 guests of Hong Kong’s Metropole hotel contracted the SARS virus on February 21, 2003. Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr, and Nick Tandavanitj are founders of the digital art collective Blast Theory. They conceived this piece in 2018 when they were artists-in-residence at the World Health Organization in Geneva. Their...
Photo of a light-skinned woman wearing a blue and white scrub set and white sneakers.
Personal Protective Equipment
Fighting disease with masks and protective clothing is an ancient practice. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE) around the world. In spring 2020, PPE was especially scarce throughout the United States in nursing homes, prisons, and care facilities for people with disabilities. Individuals came together to create face coverings for neighbors...
White paper poster advertising an art installation for social distancing using black squares in a 9 x 8 grid, each square in each row gets larger from left to right
Social Distance
The phrase “social distance” became common lingo early in the COVID-19 pandemic. To safely shop, work, or wait in line, people were advised to stay six feet (or two meters) apart. Graphic markers guided this new behavior. Solutions ranged from elaborate installations to hand-made solutions. Content from the exhibition Design and Healing: Creative Responses to...
An eye-catching poster of a cartoon-like worker holding a bin of tomatoes and the words [WORKERS FIRST] printed in bubble font repeating vertically in wavy lines filling the background.
Building Health Equity
Structural racism is a silent killer. Many conditions of daily life affect people’s health, including access to transportation, education, safe housing, nutritious food, clean air and water, and green space. Economic policies in the United States have routinely confined people of color in neighborhoods lacking these essential resources. Pandemics, from cholera in the early 1900s...
Poster which explains what Mutual Aid is and how the process works.
Mutual Aid
During the COVID-19 pandemic, mutual aid organizations around the world delivered food to neighbors in need, ran errands for housebound people, and created masks and other protective equipment. Many of these loosely organized groups relied on social media and tools like Google Docs to organize volunteers. Content from the exhibition Design and Healing: Creative Responses...
A night-time photograph of a public space with a high suspended light source which illuminates a large yellowish open circle on the paved surface below.
Light and Healing
In 1882, Robert Koch (German, 1843–1910) discovered the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. At the time, one in seven people in Europe and the United States died of tuberculosis. People living in poverty were especially vulnerable. Sunlight and fresh air were common treatments for tuberculosis until 1943, when antibiotics were proven to cure the disease. Sanatoriums,...