Session title: Design on Display: How Museums Exhibit Designed Objects

Session chair: Marianne Lamonaca, associate director for curatorial affairs and education, The Wolfsonian-FIU

Starting with the founding of the South Kensington Museum in London, museums have played an important role in giving meaning to the idea of "design" and in bringing it to public attention. The goal of this panel is to explore the conventions that have guided how museums have exhibited design, in terms of both historical and contemporary practice. What aims have museums had in displaying design? Have they presented designed objects as works of art, as historical or ethnographic artifacts, as examples for practical emulation, or as desirable commodities? What kinds of distinctions among these objects have they drawn? How have the conventions of display highlighted - or obscured - important aspects of design? How have these conventions changed, in response to the development of new spheres of design and new technologies of display? Proposals from museum professionals as well as scholars in all relevant academic fields are welcome. Proposals should be sent by May 9, 2008, to: Marianne Lamonaca, The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, 1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139; lamonaca@fiu.edu. Please see the CAA's "Call for Participation "(http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/CallforParticipation2009.pdf) for eligibility and submission guidelines.