designs for different futures explores the challenges and opportunities that humans may face in the years and centuries ahead. visitors will encounter lab-grown food, seaweed textiles, and ballet shoes made with sweat among a range of works that raise many questions, including about what technologies may hold for intimacy, identity, and citizenship. opens october 22.

major exhibition, exploring how designers today are shaping the future, to premiere at the philadelphia museum of art.
philadelphia museum of art: october 22, 2019–march 8, 2020

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?

press preview: 17 october 2019, 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. (remarks at 10:00 a.m.)

hours
wednesday 10am–8:45pm
thursday 10am–5pm
friday 10am–8:45pm
saturday 10am–5pm
sunday 10am–5pm
monday closed
tuesday 10am–5pm

walker art center: 12 september 2020 thru 3 january 2021
art institute of chicago: 6 february thru 16 may 2021