A special museum tucked away in downtown Chicago is dedicated to design and how it shapes our lives.
“Chicago is so proud of the things we’ve created and contributed to the world, from the trunnion bascule bridge over the river here, Millennium Park, or the Obama Presidential Center, or the deep dish pizza pan, or the pinball machine,” said David Salkin, executive director of the Design Museum of Chicago. “We reversed the river. We dye it green. We’re really innovative.”
The Design Museum of Chicago is a hidden gem in the Loop, less than a block from Millennium Park. It’s small but mighty.
“We have this incredible location, we’re accessible, we’re open every day to everybody,” Salkin said. “We have about 3,000 flexible square feet here that we get to play with.”
There’s a lot to experience in that 3,000 square feet, where artist Alex Stark is curating an exhibit called “Voices Embodied: Prognostication.”
The exhibit explores disability and identity through art. Most of the works were created by artists with disabilities.
“Being an artist, being a queer person, being someone with a disability, I really wanted to create some shows about that,” Stark said.
Stark’s sculpture “Miss Universe” is a play on gender, rich in color and texture.
In “Wheelchair Madonna,” Katherine Sherwood reimagines a traditional image and transposes elements of disability on it.
In “Blue Tape,” Charlotte Saylor takes discarded objects and transforms them.
“Charlotte is taking those objects off the street, out of trash cans or whatever, and sort of creating something beautiful,” Stark said.
Blind painter Kelly Coleman created a painting of herself and her service dog going on a hike in the woods.
“She actually painted this by touch, by people describing it to her,” Stark said. “We can talk about disability as just another human experience.”
“A show like this helps remind me everybody has the agency and opportunity to change the built world and systems around them,” Salkin said.
Salkin said design is part of our everyday existence. It can fly high, like the iconic “Flag Feast” in Terminal 3 at O’Hare International Airport, an experience produced and curated by the museum.
Design can be seen in the way we organize our days and how we live our lives.
“When I think of how design is affecting certain communities, I think of how it has been used to isolate or separate through urban infrastructure and highways, but also how it can bridge, literally, through bridges,” Salkin said. “So, design can be used to make it easier for people to live their best lives.”
That’s for people of any age.
Each year, the museum hosts the All-City Visual Arts exhibition, which features the works of 400 Chicago Public Schools students, helping them grow.
“Sometimes, if you’re a kid and you have your art hanging in a museum, that might just be the little kick you need to live a creative life,” Salkin said. “That was the case for me.”
Now, as the museum’s executive director, Salkin has this message.
“I want people to leave here feeling engaged with the city and the world around, and when they’re curious, I want them to come back,” he said.
The museum is hosting its annual benefit “Forward, Designing the Next Chapter” on Oct. 8 at the SECRIST|BEACH gallery.
