Walker Art Center: September 12, 2020–January 3, 2021
Art Institute of Chicago: February 6–May 16, 2021

View Full Schedule of Related Public Programs 

The role of designers in shaping how we think about the future is the subject of a major exhibition that will premiere at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this fall. Designs for Different Futures brings together some 80 works that address the challenges and opportunities that humans may encounter in the years, decades, and centuries ahead. Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Art Institute of Chicago, Designs for Different Futures will be presented at the Walker and the Art Institute of Chicago following its presentation in Philadelphia.

Among the questions today’s designers seek to answer are: What role can technology play in augmenting or replacing a broad range of human activities? Can intimacy be maintained at a distance? How can we negotiate privacy in a world in which the sharing and use of personal information has blurred traditional boundaries? How might we use design to help heal or transform ourselves, bodily and psychologically? How will we feed an ever-growing population?

While no one can precisely predict the shape of things to come, the works in the exhibition are firmly fixed on the future, providing design solutions for a number of speculative scenarios. In some instances, these proposals are borne of a sense of anxiety, and in others of a sense of excitement over the possibilities that can be created through the use of innovative materials, new technologies, and, most importantly, fresh ideas.

Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, stated: “We often think of art museums as places that foster a dialogue between the past and the present, but they also can and should be places that inspire us to think about the future and to ask how artists and designers can help us think creatively about it. We are delighted to be able to collaborate with the Walker Art Center and the Art Institute of Chicago on this engaging project, which will offer our visitors an opportunity to understand not only how designers are imagining—and responding to—different visions of the futures, but also to understand just how profoundly forward-looking design contributes in our own time to shaping the world that we occupy and will bequeath as a legacy to future generations.”

Thinking about the future has always been part of the human condition. It has also been a perennial field of inquiry for designers and architects whose speculations on this subject—ranging from the concrete to the whimsical—can profoundly affect how we imagine what is to come. Among the many forward-looking projects on view, visitors to Designs for Different Futures will encounter lab-grown food, robotic companions, family leave policy proposals, and textiles made of seaweed.

“Some of these possibilities will come to fruition, while others will remain dreams or even threats,” said Kathryn Hiesinger, the J. Mahlon Buck, Jr. Family Senior Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700, who coordinated the exhibition in Philadelphia with former assistant curator Michelle Millar Fisher. “We’d like visitors to join us as we present designs that consider the possible, debate the inevitable, and weigh the alternatives. This exhibition explores how design—understood expansively—can help us all grapple with what might be on the horizon and allows our imaginations to take flight.”

The exhibition is divided into 11 thematic sections. In Resources, visitors will encounter an inflatable pod measuring 15 feet in diameter, part of the work Another Generosity first created in 2018 by Finnish architect Eero Lundén and designed in this incarnation in collaboration with Ron Aasholm and Carmen Lee. The pod slowly expands and contracts in the space, responding to changing levels of carbon dioxide as visitors exhale around it, and provoking questions about the ongoing effect of the human footprint on the environment. The section titled Generations will explore ways in which the choices we make today may contribute to the well-being or suffering of those who come after us. Here, visitors will find a model of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a repository that stores the world’s largest collection of crop seeds. Located within a mountain on a remote island near the Arctic Circle, the facility is designed to withstand natural or human-made disasters. The Earths section of the exhibition speculates on the challenges of extra-terrestrial communication in Lisa Moura’s Alien Nations installation and showcases typeface from the 2016 science-fiction film Arrival.

In Bodies, designers grapple with choices about how our physical and psychological selves might look, feel, and function in different future scenarios. Featured here is one of the world's lightest and most advanced exoskeletons, designed to help people with mobility challenges remain upright and active. Also notable is the CRISPR Kit, an affordable and accessible gene-editing toolbox, which has the potential to revolutionize biomedical research and open opportunities for gene therapy and genetic engineering.

Intimacies is a section that explores how technologies and online interfaces may affect love, family, and community. Here, urban experiences of sex and love are the focus of Andrés Jaque’s Intimate Strangers, an audio-visual installation focusing on the gay dating app. Through internet-enabled devices, designers explore the possibility of digitally mediated love and sex, suggesting what advanced digital networks hold for human sexuality.

Foods contains projects that explore the future of the human diet. Among them is a modular edible-insect farm, Cricket Shelter, by Terreform ONE, which offers a ready source of protein for impending food crises. A kitchen installation suggests how technology and design may contribute to new modes of food production, including an Ouroboros Steak made from human cells.

Additional sections of the exhibition will focus on the future of Jobs and how Cities will function and look 100 years from now—with robotic baby feeders, driverless cars, and other developments—affording a glimpse at how we might navigate living beyond this planet. Shoes grown from sweat are among the innovations visitors will find in a section devoted to Materials, while Power will look at how design may affect our citizenship and help us retain agency over such essentials as our DNA, our voices, and our electronic communications in a future where the lines between record-keeping, communication, and surveillance blur. Data acknowledges and questions the different ways that information might be collected and used, with all its inherent biases and asymmetries, to shape different futures.

Futures Therapy Lab

As part of the exhibition, visitors to the Philadelphia Museum of Art galleries will also encounter a space for community meetups, public programs, school visits, and self-directed activities. The Futures Therapy Lab will weave personal connections between visitors and the exhibition as part of a collaboration between the museum’s Education Department and the curatorial team. Weekly programs, many of which will occur on Pay-What-You-Wish Wednesday Nights, will connect visitors with designers, artists, and locally based creatives. The Futures Therapy Lab will contain a crowdsourced Futures Library that includes everything from science-fiction books to the exhibition catalogue. “Thinking about possible futures is both exhilarating and anxiety-provoking,” said Emily Schreiner, the Zoë and Dean Pappas Curator of Education, Public Programs. “The Futures Therapy Lab is a place for conversation, critique, and creativity in which visitors can imagine their own hopes, fears and solutions for the future through reflection, discussion, and art making.”

Support

Designs for Different Futures is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

In Philadelphia, this exhibition is generously supported by the Annenberg Foundation Fund for Major Exhibitions, the Robert Montgomery Scott Endowment for Exhibitions, the Kathleen C. and John J.F. Sherrerd Fund for Exhibitions, Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer in Honor of Collab's 50th Anniversary, the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Laura and William C. Buck Endowment for Exhibitions, the Harriet and Ronald Lassin Fund for Special Exhibitions, the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Exhibition Fund, and an anonymous donor.

Credits as of August 29, 2019

Publication

Centered on the innovative contemporary design objects, projects, and speculations of the exhibition’s checklist, the accompanying volume proposes design as a means through which to understand, question, and negotiate individual and collective futures, giving provocative voice to the most urgent issues of today. It asks readers to contemplate the design context within broader historical, social, political, and aesthetic spectrums. Designs for Different Futures addresses futures near and far, exploring such issues as human-digital interaction, climate change, political and social inequality, resource scarcity, transportation, and infrastructure.

The primary authors are Kathryn B. Hiesinger, Michelle Millar Fisher, Emmet Byrne, Maite Borjabad López-Pastor, and Zoë Ryan, with Andrew Blauvelt, Colin Fanning, Orkan Telhan, Juliana Rowen Barton, and Maude de Schauensee. Additional contributions include texts by V. Michael Bove Jr. and Nora Jackson, Christina Cogdell, Marina Gorbis, Srećko Horvat, Bruno Latour, Marisol LeBrón, Ezio Manzini, Chris Rapley, Danielle Wood, LinYee Yuan, and Emma Yann Zhang; and interviews with Gabriella Coleman, Formafantasma (Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin), Aimi Hamraie and Jillian Mercado, Francis Kéré, David Kirby, Helen Kirkum, Alexandra Midal, Neri Oxman, and Eyal Weizman.

Designs for Different Futures will be distributed by Yale University Press. The book was overseen by Philadelphia Museum of Art publishing director Katie Reilly and editors Katie Brennan and Kathleen Krattenmaker. It is designed by Ryan Gerald Nelson, Senior Graphic Designer at the Walker Art Center, under the direction of Walker design director Emmet Byrne.

It is available in the museum store ($40) or via the museum website.

Designs for Different Futures

ISBN 9780876332900

Related Programs

The Futures Therapy Lab will host a series of weekly happenings:

Artists in the Lab
Artists and designers share their work through talks, demonstrations, and workshops. Wednesday Nights, 5:00–8:45 p.m.

The Designer is In
Talk it out. One-on-one sessions with local designers offer new perspectives on your everyday life. Thursdays & Saturdays, 2:00–4:00 p.m.

Sci-Fi Sundays
Drop-in readings that explore narratives of the future. Select Sundays, 2:00–3:00pm

View Full Schedule of Related Public Programs 

Curatorial Team

The curatorial team is comprised of: at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Kathryn B. Hiesinger, The J. Mahlon Buck, Jr. Family Senior Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700, and Michelle Millar Fisher, formerly The Louis C. Madeira IV Assistant Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700; at the Walker Art Center, Emmet Byrne, Design Director and Associate Curator of Design; and at the Art Institute of Chicago, Maite Borjabad López-Pastor, Neville Bryan Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design, and Zoë Ryan, the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design. Consulting curators are Andrew Blauvelt, Director, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Curator-at-Large, Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Colin Fanning, Independent Scholar, Bard Graduate Center, New York; and Orkan Telhan, Associate Professor of Fine Arts (Emerging Design Practices), University of Pennsylvania School of Design, Philadelphia.

Kathryn B. Hiesinger is the J. Mahlon Buck, Jr. Family Senior Curator of European Decorative Arts after 1700 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her work focuses on decorative arts and design from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and includes the exhibitions and publications Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion (2011), Out of the Ordinary: The Architecture and Design of Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Associates (2001), Japanese Design: A Survey since 1950 (1994) and Design since 1945 (1983).

Michelle Millar Fisher is the Ronald C. and Anita L Wornick Curator of Contemporary Decorative Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She is a graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and is currently completing her doctorate in architectural history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the co-author, with Paola Antonelli, of Items: Is Fashion Modern? (2017).

Emmet Byrne is the Design Director and Associate Curator of Design at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He provides creative leadership and strategic direction for the Walker in all areas of visual communication, branding, publishing, while overseeing the award-winning in-house design studio. He was one of the founders of the Task Newsletter in 2009 and is the creator of the Walker’s Intangibles platform.

Maite Borjabad López-Pastor is the Neville Bryan Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. She is an architect and curator educated at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Columbia University, New York. She is the author and curator of Scenographies of Power: From the State of Exception to the Spaces of Exception (2017). Her work revolves around diverse forms of critical spatial practices, operating across architecture, art, and performance.

Zoë Ryan is the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the editor of As Seen: Exhibitions That Made Architecture and Design History (2017) and curator of In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernists in Mexico at Midcentury (2019) and the 2014 Istanbul Design Biennial, The Future is Not What it Used to Be. Her projects explore the impact of architecture and design on society.

Published June 28, 2019. Updated October 2, 2019.

Social Media @philamuseum

We are Philadelphia’s art museum. A world-renowned collection. A landmark building. A place that welcomes everyone. We bring the arts to life, inspiring visitors—through scholarly study and creative play—to discover the spirit of imagination that lies in everyone. We connect people with the arts in rich and varied ways, making the experience of the Museum surprising, lively, and always memorable. We are committed to inviting visitors to see the world—and themselves—anew through the beauty and expressive power of the arts.

For additional information, contact the Communications Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art by phone at 215-684-7860, by fax at 215-235-0050, or by e-mail at pressroom@philamuseum.org. The Museum is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For general information, call 215-763-8100.

View Exhibition Press Release 

Futures Therapy Lab

Thinking about possible futures is both exhilarating and anxiety-making. The Futures Therapy Lab is a space for conversation, critique, and creativity for those considering the ideas set forth in Designs for Different Futures. Work it out in the Lab through reading reflection, and art making. Part of the exhibition experience, the lab is open to visitors of all ages and is free with museum admission. Drop-in daily during museum hours. Open late Wednesdays and Fridays, until 8:45 p.m.

In addition to daily drop-in activities, the Lab will host a series of weekly happenings:

Artists in the Lab
Artists and designers share their work through talks, demonstrations, and workshops. Wednesday Nights, 5:00–8:45 p.m.

The Designer is In
Talk it out. One-on-one sessions with local designers offer new perspectives on your everyday life. Thursdays & Saturdays, 2:00–4:00 p.m.

Sci-Fi Sundays
Drop-in readings that explore narratives of the future. Select Sundays, 2:00–3:00pm

Artists in the Lab

Artist in the Lab: Grace Duong and Wesley Flash on Tarot and Prophecy

October 23, 2019 | 6:00–8:00 p.m. | Futures Therapy Lab and Great Stair Hall

Get present, create, and dive deeper. Work with designer and illustrator Grace Duong to create your own tarot card, then learn more about the art of tarot with Wesley Flash. Tarot tells a story; it isn’t always about the future itself. Find out your own story and share stories with others. Drop-ins welcome.

Artist in the Lab: Simon Kim and Mark Yim on Quori

October 30, 2019 | 6:30 p.m. | Dorrance Galleries

Meet Simon Kim and Mark Yim, the creators of Quori, one of the robots on view in the exhibition, and hear about the design and engineering that informed this research robot. Drop-ins welcome.

Simon Kim, AIA, OAA, is Principal of Ibañez Kim Architects and an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Mark Yim is the Asa Whitney Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the GRASP lab. Mark and Simon work together as directors of Immersive Kinematics Lab , along with associate Mariana Ibañez.

Perspectives Gallery Talks: Gavin Kenneally on Ghost Minitaur

November 6 | 6:30 p.m. | Dorrance Galleries

Gavin Kenneally shares the process of designing Ghost Minitaur, a four-legged robot capable of exploring dangerous territory. His fifteen-minute talk is followed by a conversation in the gallery. ​Drop-ins welcome.

Kenneally is the chief product officer and mechatronics lead for Ghost Robotics, where he works to make legged robots a commercial reality. Perspectives Gallery Talks are conversations about art and design through a contemporary lens.

Artist in the Lab: The Tempestry Project on Climate Change and Fiber Art

November 13, 2019 | 6:00–8:00 p.m. | Futures Therapy Lab

Join The Tempestry Project as they weave together knitting and fiber arts with the study of climate, to visualize climate change data in a way that’s accurate, tangible, and beautiful. By building a bridge between hard data and our own softer experiences to take comfort in tackling this heated topic, through the act of making. Drop-ins welcome.

Artist in the Lab: Ane Crabtree on Costuming Dystopia

November 20, 2019 | 6:30 p.m. | The Eli Kirk Price Room

Ane Crabtree designed the iconic handmaid costume seen in the Emmy Award winning Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale and on view in the exhibition Design for Different Futures. Hear about the role costume design can play in creating alternate worlds in series such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Westworld as well as upcoming projects. Free ticket required.

Crabtree is a costume designer for film and television. Born to a white father and a mother of Okinawan descent, Crabtree grew up in Kentucky before studying fine arts and Shakespeare at Harlaxton College in Lincolnshire, England and fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She designed the costumes for Seasons One and Two for The Handmaid’s Tale starring Elizabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Samira Wiley, Max Minghella, Yvonne Strahovski, O-T Fagbenle, Alexis Bledel, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, and Amanda Brugel. Her recent work includes the Dee Rees and Cassian Elwes follow up film to Mudbound, The Last Thing He Wanted, and the Scottfree/FOX pilot for The Passage. Crabtree has been nominated for a Costume Design Guild Award for PanAm (2012), Masters of Sex (2015), and Westworld (2016), and won for The Handmaid’s Tale (2018). She also received two Emmy nominations for The Handmaid’s Tale (2017 & 2018). She is currently working on the creative presentation of The Kyd’s Exquisite Follies, a futuristic afro-punk, steam funk musical with Dee Rees and Cassian Elwes.

Artist in the Lab: Lucy Jones on Seated Design

January 8, 2020 | 6:30 p.m. | Futures Therapy Lab

Believing that designers should share, design, develop and listen to the needs of all individuals, Lucy Jones created “Seated Design,” fashion built specifically for the seated, instead of the standing, body. She is joined in conversation with Katie Samson, arts educator and disability rights advocate. Drop-ins welcome.

Artist in the Lab: Terraform ONE on Cricket Shelter, Adam Chad Brody and Jude Tallichet, Cricket Concert

Jan 15, 2020 | 6:30 p.m. | Futures Therapy Lab

Vivian Kuan and Nicolas Gervasi from Terreform ONE, an architecture and urban-design research group, discuss how their Cricket Shelter and other projects work to design against extinction.

Join farmer-artist-musicians Adam Chad Brody and Jude Tallichet as they perform alongside live crickets to explore how insects can become kin, housemates, collaborators and entertainers—in addition to being a source of nourishment. Drop-ins welcome.

Artist in the Lab: Ryan Strand Greenberg on The History of Now

Jan 22, 2020 | 6:00–8:00 p.m. | Futures Therapy Lab

Join photographer and curator of public art Ryan Strand Greenberg for an evening of investigation, creation, and reflection as we ask ourselves as individuals and as a community, “What about now should define the history we pass on to the future?” Drop-ins welcome.

Artist in the Lab: Mary Maggic on Housewives Making Drugs

Jan 29, 2020 | 6:30 p.m. | The Eli Kirk Price Room

Artist Mary Maggic explores body and gender politics and environmental toxicity through their artistic research in DIY hormone hacking, expanding on issues raised by their speculative video Housewives Making Drugs on view in the exhibition Designs for Different Futures. The event will include a urine-hormone micro-performance (Molecular Queering Agency). Free ticket required.

Artist in the Lab: Lin Yee Yuan on Mold Magazine

February 12, 2020 | 6:30 p.m. | Futures Therapy Lab

How will our relationship to food change in the future? LinYee Yuan, founder and editor of MOLD magazine, is joined in conversation with local food activists to consider how designers can address the coming international food crisis. Drop-ins welcome.

Artist in the Lab: Orkan Telhan on Breakfast Before Extinction

February 19, 2020 | 6:30 p.m. | The Eli Kirk Price Room

What possibilities do microorganisms offer in a time of climate crisis, food scarcity, and biodiversity loss? Artist and biological designer Orkan Telhan explores the different roles microorganisms can play for shaping the future of the human diet. Free ticket required.

Artist in the Lab: Adrienne / Swim Pony on The End

February 26, 2020 | 6:30 p.m. | Futures Therapy Lab

Swim Pony's Adrienne Mackey shares insights and hands-on experience gathered from creating THE END – a month-long immersive theatrical that helped audiences confront fears around life’s end, through daily, darkly playful interactions. Drop-ins welcome.

Artist in the Lab: Kate Cuffari on Experimental Materials in the Museum

March 4, 2020 | 6:30 p.m. | Dorrance Galleries

Perspectives Gallery Talk with Kate Cuffari on the challenges that materials such as sweat and seaweed in Designs for Different Futures offer in terms of museum presentation and conversation. Drop-ins welcome.

Kate Cuffari is the Associate Conservator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Perspectives Gallery Talks are conversations about art and design through a contemporary lens.

The Designer Is In

Thursdays & Saturdays | 2:00–4:00 p.m. | Futures Therapy Lab
Talk it out. One-on-one sessions with local designers offer new perspectives on your everyday life.

October 24 & 26, 2019
Maia Chao, Look at Art, Get Paid

November 7 & 9, 2019
Paul Farber, Monument Lab

November 14 & 16, 2019
Stephanie Carlisle, KieranTimberlake and Uncertain Terrain

November 21 & 23, 2019
Andrew Wit, WITO

December 5, 7, 12 & 14, 2019
Yadan Luo, OLIN

December 19 & 21, 2019
Paul Farber, Monument Lab

January 9, 11, 16, & 18, 2020
Michelle Johnson, University of Pennsylvania

January 23 & 25, 2020
Andrew Wit, WITO

January 30, February 1, 6, & 8, 2020
Scott Page, Interface Studios

February 13, 15, 20, & 22, 2020
Raja Schaar, Drexel University

February 27 & 29, March 5 & 7, 2020
Tiny WPA

Sci-Fi Sundays

Sundays | 2:00–3:00 p.m. | Meet in the Dorrance Galleries

Drop-in readings that explore narratives of the future. Artists and authors read their favorite passages from science fiction novels, comic books and literary magazines. Program free after museum admission.

October 27, 2019: Ariell Johnson, Amalgam Comics

November 10, 2019: Shivon Love

November 17, 2019: Blue Stoop

November 24, 2019: Wooden Shoe

December 8, 2019: Dr. Walter Greason

December 15, 2019: Li Sumpter, MythMedia Studios

December 22, 2019: Galactic Philadelphia

January 12, 2020: Free Library of Philadelphia

January 19, 2020: Liz Barr

January 26, 2020: Ulises

February 9, 2020: Chef Omar Tate

February 16, 2020: Jasmine Smith, Library Co. of Philadelphia

February 23, 2020: Little Berlin Zine Library

March 8, 2020: Maori Holmes, BlackStar Film Festival

Drink & Draw

Select Wednesdays | 6:00–8:00 p.m. | Great Stair Hall

Sip and sketch with local artists on the first Wednesday of each month. Drawing materials provided; bar drinks available for purchase. Included with Pay What You Wish admission.

Drink & Draw with Mary Kate McDevitt
November 6, 2019 | 6:00–8:00 p.m. | Great Stair Hall

Drink & Draw with Ladies Wine and Design
February 5, 2020 | 6:00–8:00 p.m. | Great Stair Hall

Drink & Draw with Jordan Sondler
March 4, 2020 | 6:00–8:00 p.m. | Great Stair Hall

Family Festival: Family Futures

November 3, 2019 | 10:00 a.m. | Main Building

How does design shape modern—and future—families? Visitors of all ages envision their future, from products and policies to art and activism with designer Alexis Hope. Included with Pay What You Wish admission.

Balcony Studio (All Ages)
10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Create and design for your future self.

Mini Tours (Best for Kids ages 3-10)
11:00 a.m. & 1:00 p.m.
Time travel through the galleries as a family.

Story Shares (Grown-up Conversations; Kids Welcome)
11:00 a.m. & 1:00 p.m.
Talk family leave and more with Alexis Hope, whose advocacy is featured in the exhibition.

Stroller Tour (Grown-ups with Babies)
10:30 a.m. & 2:00 p.m.
Tours for those with the newest generation of artists in tow.

BAE Café: Breastfeeding Awareness & Empowerment (Grown-ups with Babies)
12:00 p.m.
Bring your breast, chest, or bottle to BAE Café and chat with other caregivers and feeding advocates.

Talk

The Irma and Herbert Barness Endowed Lecture

Why is Artificial Intelligence a Woman?

November 16, 2019 | 2:00 p.m. | Perelman Auditorium

Even as gender is increasingly debated as fluid rather than binary, designers of future-oriented technologies often represent artificial intelligence through feminine stereotypes. This panel examines the gendered ways that AI and robotics are designed and the impacts that has on our futures. Research scientist Julie Carpenter will discuss her work on Q, a gender-neutral voice for use in voice assistive technologies that offers an alternative to the familiar voices of Siri and Alexa. Bruce Duncan of the Terasem Movement Foundation will present the android BINA48, which is included in a work in Designs for Different Futures and whose form is unusually modelled on a real person. Art historian Jennifer Robertson will share her research on Japan’s advanced robotics industry and the design of human-robot interfaces. Moderated by Michelle Millar Fisher, co-curator of Designs for Different Futures.

Ticket required. $10 (members $8); does not include museum admission.

Part of Untold Stories, a lecture series that asks questions about works of art we think we know.

Friday Remix

January 31, 2020 | 6:00–10:00 p.m. | Main Building

A unique late-night experience designed in collaboration with local creatives. Get ready for music, dancing, Detours, gallery interventions, art-making, performances, and more. Collaborators include The Sun Ra Arkestra, Mary Maggic, Annie Wilson, and Zornitsa Stoyanova.

Ticket required. $28 (members $22; Young Friends and Student members $14).

MLK Day: Dreams of Different Futures

January 20, 2020 | 10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. | Main Building

How do we engage community in the design of our city now and for the future? Inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spend the day of service imagining possibilities for a future Philadelphia through community conversations, a teach-in, and an all-ages activity with Tiny WPA. Drop-ins welcome.

Teach-in: A Case for Action

How can we create change? Learn from community organizers, activists and designers what steps they take to positively impact the future.

Community Conversation: Return and Go Get It

How does the past shape our future? Employing the West African concept of Sankofa, where one looks to the past for guidance for the future, participants will discuss how Dr. King’s legacy continues to inspire dreams for the future.

Design Competition for Schools

On display March 8, 2020 | Futures Therapy Lab

Stop by and see student posters that answer the question, “What would you design that supports and empowers people to bridge a divide?”

Public Exhibition Tours

Tuesdays & Thursdays |1:00 p.m. | Dorrance Galleries
Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays | 11:00 a.m. & 1:00 p.m. | Dorrance Galleries

The future is wild! Don’t go it alone. Drop in for a tour of Designs for Different Futures and cap off your visit in the Futures Therapy Lab.

Support

Designs for Different Futures is organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

In Philadelphia, this exhibition is generously supported by the Annenberg Foundation Fund for Major Exhibitions, the Robert Montgomery Scott Endowment for Exhibitions, the Kathleen C. and John J.F. Sherrerd Fund for Exhibitions, Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer in Honor of Collab's 50th Anniversary, the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Laura and William C. Buck Endowment for Exhibitions, the Harriet and Ronald Lassin Fund for Special Exhibitions, the Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz Exhibition Fund, and an anonymous donor.

Credits as of August 29, 2019

Note: Images illustrate programs affiliated with the exhibition, though not all of them reflect works represented in the exhibition. Please contact the Press Office to verify.

Social Media @philamuseum

We are Philadelphia’s art museum. A world-renowned collection. A landmark building. A place that welcomes everyone. We bring the arts to life, inspiring visitors—through scholarly study and creative play—to discover the spirit of imagination that lies in everyone. We connect people with the arts in rich and varied ways, making the experience of the Museum surprising, lively, and always memorable. We are committed to inviting visitors to see the world—and themselves—anew through the beauty and expressive power of the arts.

For additional information, contact the Communications Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art by phone at 215-684-7860, by fax at 215-235-0050, or by e-mail at pressroom@philamuseum.org. The Museum is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For general information, call 215-763-8100.