I have a weakness for a museum where engineering becomes choreography and sculpture wears perfume. The Museum of Arts and Design indulges both inclinations beautifully. Yet what I admire most is the warmth beneath its sophistication: a determination to bring the community into the conversation and give people the confidence to contribute.
Its seventieth anniversary gala on Oct. 26 celebrated that ethos through an exuberant program. To my mind, the excitement of the new exhibitions lies in the team they reveal: alert to the present, willing to take chances, and intent on inspiring the next generation. A young visitor ought to leave a place like this with a reason to pursue a creative life. What a magnificent possibility to put within someone’s reach.
Of course, such openheartedness has deep roots. Philanthropist Aileen Osborn Webb founded MAD in 1956 with the belief, recalled by Board Chair Michele Cohen, that everyone deserves the opportunity to create. I find something profoundly moving in that inheritance. Across seven decades, an invitation to appreciate extraordinary accomplishment has also become permission to attempt it.
That civic purpose received official recognition when Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, joined by Council Member Gale Brewer, proclaimed October 26, 2026, Museum of Arts and Design Appreciation Day. He reiterated his commitment of the entirety of his $50 million capital budget to arts and cultural institutions. I applaud the scale of that pledge. Our city expects brilliance; sustaining the places that cultivate it merits equal fervor.
Consider, for instance, the audacity of John Procario: Freeforms—Sculptural Explorations in Wood and Light, previewed ahead of his first solo museum exhibition. Thin layers of ash are bent into looping structures fitted with LEDs, allowing illumination to emerge from within. Their apparent fluidity depends on considerable force and discipline. An aspiring designer could hardly ask for a more liberating proposition: understand your medium, then dare to demand more of it.
Meanwhile, Nike: Form Follows Motion brings archival prototypes and design studies into dialogue with the body, an association amplified at the benefit by improvisational dance from Renegade Performance Group. The familiar sneaker provides an entry into the complex decisions behind an everyday possession. For younger audiences, those objects can prompt a much larger inquiry. Taste, identity, ambition: suddenly, an obsession has scholarly company.
Alice Riehl’s monumental Herbarium Interior offered a gentler enchantment. Drawing on medieval and Renaissance tapestries, her botanical language translates textile references into porcelain. A scent created by perfumer Alexandra Monet accompanied the installation, placing lasting forms alongside the fleeting presence of fragrance. I am drawn to the intimacy of that proposal: a landscape entering memory through the air.
As for Jessica Lichtenstein: Rewilding, its sumptuous forests and flowering canopies reward a closer look. Thousands of digitally rendered female nudes coalesce into these fantastical environments, asserting agency in an imagined world of their own. Seduction, here, has a feminist argument to make. A collaboration with xTool invited attendees to produce personalized keepsakes, adding a tactile dimension to the evening.
Perhaps the most consequential exchanges, though, were the quieter ones. Artists in residence Karyn Lao and Esther Jihye Cho opened their studios, while guests fashioned wearable floral arrangements in the Education Center. Meeting a practitioner can turn an implausible dream into a vocation. There is, after all, a particular generosity in sharing the process: years of experience placed at another person’s disposal.
“At MAD, you should expect the unexpected,” said Tim Rodgers, the Nanette L. Laitman Director. Magician Dan White and DJ Erol Sabadosh obliged, carrying the festivities into the night. Patrons included Chair Emerita Barbara Tober, Todd Merrill, Dakota Jackson, and Karim Rashid, all well acquainted with the pleasures of originality.
Beyond the celebration, mending on Nov. 4 and associative beading with Renée Riccardo on Nov. 19 continue the participatory spirit. I want to know who will walk through those doors with an uncertain idea and eventually return with work the curators cannot ignore. That is a birthday wish worth funding.
For exhibitions, programs, and tickets, visit madmuseum.org.
