Store at MAD
New York
The Museum of Arts and Design first opened its doors in 1956 as the Museum of Contemporary Crafts, so it’s not surprising the museum still celebrates materials, craftsmanship and the process of design.
Exhibits highlight contemporary makers and crafters across all creative fields and media. As part of the recent “Sonic Arcade: Shaping Space With Sound” exhibition, the “Audiowear” project featured a porcelain pan-flute collar and xylophone bangles. The “Surface/Depth” exhibit opening in March will display Miriam Schapiro’s hybrid painting-collage works inspired by women’s domestic arts and crafts.
The Store at MAD curates and sells products that preserve the museum’s “handmade” ethos; however, artists also use some of the newest design technology and fabrication techniques. Visitors will find colored glass-tube vases, laser-cut wood bowls and accordion-style bookends, along with ceramics, glassware and a wide assortment of jewelry.
Anchorage Museum
Anchorage, Alaska
The Anchorage Museum is, at its core, about place. As the museum says, it brings the best of Alaska to the world and the best of the world to Alaska.
The museum doesn’t focus on one discipline; it highlights Alaska’s place in art and culture, science and history. The main exhibition in the new Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center features more than 600 objects on loan from the Smithsonian Institution’s collections, such as an 1893 Tlingit war helmet and a 1935 Iñupiaq feast bowl from Wales.
The Anchorage Museum store allows visitors to take home a piece of Alaskan culture and Northern design. Guests can browse artwork and crafts by indigenous people as well as books about various Northern cultures. Clothing, jewelry, decor: All the merchandise highlights the art, design, culture, science and history of the North. Alaska Native artwork includes woven grass baskets and wood carvings, as well as figurines and jewelry that often feature whale baleen, walrus ivory and bone.
