IN THE MIX

MINING COOPER HEWITT'S VAST COLLECTION, MUSEUM DIRECTOR MARIA NICANOR FOREGROUNDS 30 CENTURIES OF GREAT DESIGN FOR THE PUBLIC

- SAM COCHRAN

The street may be gritty and the building unassuming, but inside this confidential address, not far from New York City, a repository of wonders awaits. There are icons of Danish Modernism, American Arts and Crafts, and the Memphis movement. There are precious antiques and everyday relics, among them dishware, gadgets, and appliances of every era. And there are exquisite feats of craft in all imaginable mediums, silver to ceramic, plastic to porcelain. It’s a true Aladdin’s cave of the decorative arts—and it’s all part of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, which maintains the space for off-site storage and conservation.

“All of these items are time capsules of the moment, the person, the society,” says Maria Nicanor, the museum’s director since 2022. “We go back to these vaults as a source of inspiration. It’s where you see the expanse of the collection but also where you realize the expanse of our responsibility.” She takes it seriously. Starting next year, Nicanor and her curatorial colleagues will be spotlighting this wealth of treasures in dedicated galleries on the ground level of Cooper Hewitt’s historic Upper East Side mansion. “This is the collection of the country,” she reflects. “It has to become available to everybody.”