Recently as a class we had a visit to the Cooper Hewitt Museum. Starting out I didn’t know what to expect being that I have never been there before. Admission was free for CUNY students, which is great because you know we all are broke when we are college students. They give you a ticket with a special url and a giant stylus. This museum is a design museum. They really integrated the pen into the educational element. Wether you created something or found a piece that intrigued you, you can use the pen to save that to your personal visit URL. At the Cooper Hewitt they had various tables that you can draw on with the stylus, and event find out more about other parts of the museum.
Even though, the building itself isn’t the biggest, they still had a large archive of design exhibits. Wether it be old or recent work. My favorite room was the wallpaper room, where you can draw a design and the machine would make it into a pattern and display it on the wall. As I walked through the rooms and went to things I liked personally, I felt a sense of relieve I went. It wasn’t just some boring thing, I genuinely feel like it is a great asset for me as a design student to gain inspiration. You can physically check out projects that were done currently, save many of your favorite things to learn about later, Interact with the information you learn really getting involved in your visit, and maybe pick up a new “toy” from the gift shop to inspire you; who knows.
Just a side note that Gift shop is a rip off, but if you have the money hey why not. They do have interesting things and nic-nacs you can purchase that are related to many of the things you see in the museum. Mind you, at the price of buying something related to a exhibit. That café, was even worse trying to sell you the “Fine dining” experience. Why do they have a chief?, its a Café. Just another excuse to charge you $10 for some chips, a cookie, and literally a SHOT of expresso. I hope I mentioned I am a college student and that was my last bit of money for the week. Had a great time!
