Boston Design Museum

[statler]

The mention of a design museum by czsz really piqued my interest in the idea.

I mentioned that involving MassArt might be a good starting point, maybe in cooperation with the BAC and BSA or even the MFA & ICA.

There are still a lot of holes to fill.

Who would the major benefactors be?
Are there any rich folks in the design field or have shown an affinity for design from the Boston area or who have strong ties to Boston?

Where would you put it?
It must be reasonable. I think the Greenway would be a good option, but that ship may have already passed. Maybe in the MFA/Gardner area? The South End? Somewhere in the Back Bay? Why not reuse City Hall or the Hurley Building? Down with the ICA in the SBW? Or perhaps in Fort Point, till recently home to many design professionals.

A new building? Or adaptive reuse?
This would depend on where it gets built and the lots available at the time. Still, which is the better option. I'd lean towards a new building. Something like a design museum seems to call for its own new structure. How big should be? I'm thinking along the same size as the ICA or so.

Who is the designer?
Even if an adaptive resude project they would need to bring in an architect.
Who would you like to see? My answer is Santiago Calatrava, but that's always my answer.

What's inside?
Should it be mostly permanent exhibits with a few galleries or mostly gallery space with a few permanent exhibits? Should it be exclusively Boston-based design (no), American based (no) or have a global focus (yes)? Maybe a Boston centered wing would be in order. What kind of exhibits should be included? Should it have a specific focus (history of design?) or a more broad-based design showcase? Why shoot for the stars? Make it the premier design museum in America (the world?). A true global attraction.

Any thoughts?

[Ron Newman]

By 'design' do we mean just architecture, or also: landscape, furniture, industrial, and even fashion?

[statler]

That's part of the discussion.

Should it have a specific focus (history of design?) or a more broad-based design showcase?

I feel it should be more broad-based but I might be happy with some sort of focus, but I'm not sure what it should be.

Either way I think exhibits like this should have a place in the galleries.

What do you think?

[aquaman]

I'd give it a hip name like the B-Mod (the Boston Museum of Design), which could help identify Boston as a forward looking and arts-oriented place. And I love Calatrava, so I'd also pick him.

Location? IMO, the best place would be City Hall Plaza. The city could dedicate a wedge-shaped piece of CHP, right along Cambridge Street, with the narrow end pointing toward the T station and fanning wider as you move toward the JFK building. The area of CHP outside the museum could house a restaurant and outdoor cafe. It could close up some of the open space of CHP and provide some year-round pedestrian traffic.

Contents? I'd think with Boston and New England's historical strengths in shoes, textiles, and other industries, the permanent collection could highlight some of these things, but I think the majority of the museum should display temporary exhibits of great global design with a particular focus on the modern and future-facing. I could imagine temporary exhibits like "Danish Furniture, 1970-2000", "Propaganda: Posters of the Soviet Union in WW2", "Couture - the Work of John Galliano", "Japanese Robotics" etc.

Big Sponsors? Hmmm... That's where Boston comes up short. Maybe Reebok, Raytheon, Gillette/P&G. All have fairly large teams of designers and engineers working at them, so maybe that interest could be tapped in some way. There's also no reason entities like Harvard and MIT couldn't be asked to spread around some of their collective $30B+ endowment in the interest of education.

[cden4]

A museum like this must surely have a wing about urban design!

[unterbau]

I think the most likely place for this to show up would be near Harvard, given that the GSD is one of the most renowned in the country. There would also need to be a large concentration of architecture, given the wealth of firms in the area. I think Harvard square would be a great location for a museum? maybe it could be incorporated into the Holyoke Center. A perfect location would be the former Design Research bldg, but I doubt Crate & Barrel would be willing to part with it.

[Beton Brut]

Realistically, an adaptive re-use of the former home of the ICA on Boylston, spitting distance from the BAC, would be ideal. I recall the building sold last fall, but I don't remember the buyer or circumstances.

An institution of this sort should be all-embracing.

Maybe Drucker can fund it as penance for what what he's going to do with the Shreves building...

[statler]

The problem with bringing in other big local institutions (MIT, Harvard, MFA, etc) is that they may see the b-Mod as 'competition' to their museums which often feature design exhibits.

I like they idea of Gillette, Reebok et al, but you may run the risk of it be too skewed corporate design or even the exhibits becoming advertisements for their latest products.

Actually I like Mod-B better for some reason. :shrug:

[Ron Newman]

Didn't the BAC buy the former ICA building?

[unterbau]

A building on the greenway like czsz mention, would be pretty cool, too. I'd love to see more modern architecture built in boston- maybe get some of the young up-and-coming firms in boston a chance to compete for it...

[caravaggiste]

Originally Posted by Ron Newman

Didn't the BAC buy the former ICA building?

yeah it was. Its now used for sketch problems on the weekends and I think in the future, more dedicated studio space/ galleries.

[PaulC]

I think this group has been talking about a museum for years:

The Society of Arts and Crafts
http://www.societyofcrafts.org/

[statler]

^^Interesting. I had never heard of them.

If this thing were to be launched by a coalition of smaller organizations they should definitely be included.
Unfortunately, I think their focus might be a little too narrow to handle the whole thing themselves.

[PaulC]

The Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton already covers some of this:


http://www.fullercraft.org/

[czsz]

^ In Brockton?! Does it get any visitors?

There's been a history of such museums migrating to cities to seek greater exposure. The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, for example. The Peabody-Essex in Salem discussed moving to Boston for a long time, as well.

As for the location of the new museum, I'd like to see something stunningly modern on the Greenway. The MassHort site might be ideal; it would play off the new design rhythms in Dewey Square and be a stone's throw from the ICA. Huntington Avenue near MassArt would be okay, but it's too institutional as it is.

[statler]

I am not sure if I am serious about this or not...

While this really doesn't solve any pressing problem with Boston's built environment, it may at least help educate people about proper design, or at least get them thinking about it. Plus it's a bit easier than building our own Urban Ring.

I have no idea how these things start, but there must be some sort of seed or nucleolus to these types of ideas because they do happen. This probably isn't the correct way to do this but it's something.

Here is a very, very, very rough draft of ... something.

Boston Design Consortium

-About-
Boston Design Consortium (BDC) aims to be a coalition of Boston area arts and design oriented organizations and individuals.
The mission of the BDC is educate and inform the public about the world of design, including but not exclusive to design history, progress, current state and future issues.
One of the BDC main goals will be the construction and operation of a world class Museum of Design within the city of Boston.

-Possible Charter Members-
1st tier

• Art Institute of Boston
• Decordova Museum - Lincoln, MA
• Fuller Craft Museum - Brockton, MA
• Peabody Essex Museum - Salem, MA
• National Heritage Museum - Lexington, MA
• MassArt
• Society of Arts & Crafts - Boston
• Boston Society of Architects (BSA)
• Boston Architectural College (BAC)

2nd tier

• Boston University / School of Visual Arts
• Harvard University / Graduate School of Design
• MIT / School of Architecture and Planning
• Northeastern University / School of Architecture
• MFA - Boston / School of the Museum of Fine Arts
• ICA - Boston
• Other interested individuals & organizations

-Timeline-

• Set up non-profit corporation
• Construct proposal to present to possible Charter Members
• Contact proposed members, set up appointment
• Present proposal
• Set up membership council with accepting members
• Meet with membership council to refine mission and goals.
• Fund raising
• Purchase land
• Hire architect
• Build Museum

-Possible Models-

• Design Museum of London
• Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
• La Triennale di Milano
• Museum of Design: Atlanta
• Museum of Arts & Design - NYC
• Architecture + Design Museum -Los Angeles
• Vitra Design Museum - Weil am Rhein
• DESIGNMUSEO - Helsinki
• National Building Museum - Washington, D.C. (Too narrowly focused to be a proper model, but it seemed like a cool place so I threw it in here.)
• The Chicago Athenaeum
• MUDE -Lisbon (Not yet open)
• Victoria and Albert Museum - London

-Challenges-

• Membership - The proposed group of possible member presents many challenges. The mission of the museum itself will overlap the mission of many of the member organizations. They may be unwilling to join any group that they feel may steal focus or possible funding from their own organization. Furthermore, there is an inherent mismatch in size and political power wielded by the different organizations. It will be difficult to prevent the larger organizations from overpowering the smaller. And on a related note, juggling the egos of of each member organizations will be an arduous task.
• Funding - While the recent growth of the area museums points to a strong funding environment, it may be difficult to secure enough funding for an unknown, untested idea run by an unknown, untested group.
• Space - Probably the lowest concern so early in the process, but eventually meeting, then office and finally Museum space will be needed.

-Current Needs-

• Connections - In order to get off the ground, the BDC needs at least one member with some sort of high level connection to the Boston design community. Someone with a background in design and who knows at least a few people associated with some of the above organizations
• Experience - The BDC needs someone who has some experience in organizational management. Someone who understands the process of building an organization from scratch.
• Skills - Currently about the only thing that can realistically be accomplished without either of the above is perhaps a website touting the idea. Anyone who has the skills necessary to accomplish that would be welcome.

-Resources-

• Hurwit & Associates - Nonprofit Law - Starting Up: Nonprofit & Foundation Basics
• Hurwit & Associates - Nonprofit Law - Massachusetts
• Mass.gov -Nonprofit Corporation Information
• IDEO
• Museum Design Associates

[Ron Newman]

I'd add in Art Institute of Boston (now part of Lesley University, and moving soon to Porter Square).

[statler]

^^ Done. Thanks.

[czsz]

I have no idea how these things start, but there must be some sort of seed or nucleolus to these types of ideas because they do happen. This probably isn't the correct way to do this but it's something.

This is an excellent start. One step that might be far in the future but possibly necessary to have this all taken seriously would be to incorporate it as a nonprofit. I'm not sure whether it would be more wise to get some of the constituent institutions on board first, or whether incorporation would be more likely to entice them (possibly a combination of both - solicit interest first, then incorporate, then solicit more interest), but it would give it the air of formality and allow it to lobby the city more easily and to release authoritative press briefs.

Membership - The proposed group of possible member presents many challenges. The mission of the museum itself will overlap the mission of many of the member organizations. They may be unwilling to join any group that they feel may steal focus or possible funding from their own organization. Furthermore, there is an inherent mismatch in size and political power wielded by the different organizations. It will be difficult to prevent the larger organizations from overpowering the smaller. And on a related note, juggling the egos of of each member organizations will be an arduous task.

I think one way to deal with this is to really target the smaller, out of the way institutions (without forgetting the larger ones if they happen to want to step forward). They have a much greater incentive to see this through and to come compete with the bigger players on the Boston art scene. Even a space devoted to exhibitions from the collections of the DeCordova and Fuller, etc. rotated in from the main suburban museums would be enticing as a sort of advertisement for those places which also has a value in itself. The umbrella organization could be called the "Boston Design Consortium" or something like that.

[statler]

^^ Thanks. Some really good thoughts.

I've incorporated some of your ideas into the above proposal.