Lisa Taylor

Views on Art host, Ruth Bowman speaks with Lisa Taylor the director of the Cooper Hewitt Museum around the eve of the museum's re-opening at its new location. Formerly located on the 4th floor of the Cooper-Hewitt Union on Astor place, the museum moved into the historic Andrew Carnegie Mansion on Fifth Avenue. It re-opened as Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution in 1976.

Taylor describes how the museum will not only cover more fields within design but also more information by incorporating the design process into the exhibition space. She takes a broad view of design theory by looking at how design permeates every aspect of our lives. The city (New York City) is regarded as a laboratory and the audience for the museum is wide and varied, as they hope the new space will reflect. Taylor asserts she is not interested in "taste" and that the museum is not responsible for determining what would be good or bad taste.

Bowman and Taylor also discuss other new additions to the museum such as increasing activities and hosting more public events and workshops, which supports Taylor's argument that design is for everyone. The new collection storage space will also be an open storage space available to all who wish to see it. Taylor says her ideal museum experience for a visitor to the new location is "participation, rather than just simply viewing...you become involved immediately if you can choose what you want to see and if it isn't chosen for you."

It's interesting to note, around 18:20, Taylor and Bowman discuss how the museum hopes to begin incorporating technology and computers into their practices, including transferring the catalogs into "computer language." The catalog would be available for public use because, as Bowman states, "the concept of using computer tech in the very human search is a very useful one."

WNYC archives id: 11114