McNeal Hall Gallery, Saint Paul Campus

Printed Textiles: Pattern Stories

June 15 – August 25, 2013

This exhibition will showcase printed textiles selected from GMD’s collection for their exuberant design impact and their stories. These stories include printed textiles as reflections of popular culture, as evidence of humans’ unending fascination with flowers, as fanciful imitations of other textile techniques, and as individual expressions of artists and designers both known and anonymous.  Jean McElvain and Kathleen Campbell, GMD, exhibition curators.

Exhibition sponsors: Surface Design Association, Banner Creations, Fabric Graphics Association.

Say It with Snap: Motivating Workers by Design, 1923-1929

September 13, 2013 – January 6, 2014

Between 1923 and 1929, Chicago-based Mather & Company created and sold colorful, graphically-dramatic posters to businesses across the United States for display in the workplace. Through these emphatic posters, workers were exhorted to get to the point when they conversed with co-workers (“Say it with snap!”), not lose their temper (“Blowing up blows up your chances”), and own up to and correct mistakes because “Repeating our mistakes ruins our records.” In an era when the relationships between management and workers were changing, motivating posters were a way to shape both worker behavior and attitudes.  Organized by Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, DE and Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville.

HGA Gallery, Rapson Hall, Minneapolis Campus

Indigenously Crafted: 16th Century Ribbed Vaults in Mixteca, Mexico

During the 16^th century in Mexico, buildings of exceptional construction quality were built to accommodate thousands converting to Christianity. In a complex process of symbiosis, indigenous master builders, using the most advanced technology of their time and their deep knowledge of locally-available building materials, worked with Spanish architects who had knowledge of the architecture of the ribbed vault. Together they built three churches in Mixteca, Mexico, with geometrically-elegant vaults unique to 16^th century America. This exhibition explains the complex digital modeling and other advanced technologies that enabled research on and duplication of these vaults in the late 20^th century. The exhibition includes scale models of each dome.  Researcher and guest exhibition curator: Benjamin Ibarra Sevilla, Assistant Professor, Architecture, CDes.