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Design and Healing: Creative responses to epidemics

Start Date 10 December 2021
End Date 20 February 2023
Venue Cooper Hewitt Museum, Smithsonian Design Museum
Location New York, USA
Curator MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt
Exhibition shot of mannequin in hospital scrubs and masc with several other face-masked mannequin heads in a row, in front of a screen with women's masked face.
Exhibition shot of grey male mannequin on plinth in boxer briefs
Exhibition display of a doorway in wood panelled wall through which can be seen a wooden curved chair on a plinth.
xhibition display of a doorway in wood panelled wall through which can be seen grey male mannequin on plinth in underwear briefs with hologram of outstretched arms.
Exhibition display of a sun lounger on a plinth.. On the wall are 2 posters, one is a Black Lives Matter.
Exhibition display of a sun lounger on a plinth. Behind are 2 mannequins, one with head covered in hood and one covered in glass bowl

This exhibition, curated by MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, was organized during the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic revealed what some have known for a long time: breathing is spatial. This fact has implications at the scale of the body, building, city, and planet. Everyone on Earth has been affected by the pandemic. Unequal access to housing, jobs, and health care ensured that COVID-19 hit marginalized communities harder than others.

This exhibition presents architectural case studies and historical narratives alongside creative design responses to COVID-19. Every designer, artist, doctor, engineer, or neighbor featured in the exhibition asked, “How can I help?” They used open-source collaboration, rapid-response prototyping, product hacking, and social activism to create medical devices, protective gear, infographics, political posters, architecture, and community services—all with the shared aspiration to reduce structural barriers that keep us from accessing the care we all deserve.

Installation photo of “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Institution