What happened is that art terminology has changed, and “crafts” no longer adequately describes what the museum is about. The original galleries of this almost 50-year-old institution highlighted objects made from clay, glass, wood, metal, fiber, etc. At the time, these objects, no matter how unconventionally assembled or elaborately decorated, were not considered art, but merely craft. They weren’t considered fine decorative art (think gorgeous porcelain teacups) because they were made more for use than for show. So by collecting items that were not thought of as scholarly or even interesting collectibles, the museum was really a pioneer in recognizing the artistic value in the art of craft. In the past 25 years, however, the distinction between art, craft, and design has been dissolving and finely crafted functional objects have come to be known as design objects. And of course the craftsmen whose work was (and still is) exhibited here are now called artists.

Now, this isn’t the first place you would think of to research American history. The museum collects internationally and is small, so its exhibits, which are often shown one at a time, are very focused. Beside, how can looking at teakettle, a swatch of wallpaper, or an office desk chair help you in your research?

But bear with me. If you’re writing about a topic that could include trends in popular design, this is your place. And you can also come here for other topics; you just need to be a little creative. You can learn a lot by looking at the functions of objects or how they are pleasing to the eye, and asking yourself what that tells us about the type of society we live in: our needs, our values, our aesthetics. What do objects designed very differently but with similar functions tell you about human ingenuity and the different artists’ experiences? A large part of interpreting the artwork is being able to relate it to the culture that produced it. So while a previous exhibit on Seaman Schepps’s history as an important jewelry designer shop over the last 100 years probably might not have been too helpful, other exhibits like Changing Heads 2, a previous exhibit on artwork by Native American artists, might be an awesome resource for you.

Recently the museum displayed USDesign 1975-2000, which explored “Ingenuity, Innovation, and Influence of American Design.” The influence on the design of the objects varied greatly and spoke to what their designers and the Americans who bought them value—not just in aesthetics, but in also in terms of function. You could examine the evolving marriage of technology and aesthetics and their aim of achieving more appealing and more useful objects.

Artists often look back to works from earlier artistic periods or styles to draw influence, and this is something you should keep in mind as you walk through the museum. For example, USDesign included furniture by Michael Graves and Michael Ventori, who were trained in modern art but look back to Biedermeier furniture (1830s Vienna). The Biedermeier artists, in turn, looked back to the Greek and Roman furniture makers for ideas. That you can see that influence transferred from the Greeks and Romans to the Biedermeier artists to Graves and Ventori is fascinating, especially because at first glance their furniture appears anything but classical. As you move through the exhibit, you would notice some postmodernist trends, namely the departure from modernism to a more unadorned object (à la form follows function).

One piece in the exhibit that you can still see even though the exhibit is over is Telephone (1999) by Michael Graves, which has since been mass produced and manufactured by Target. Other items included tapestries, paintings, tea services, clocks, dinnerware, chairs, and lamps, holiday gift bags, and Apple computers, among other things. And why shouldn’t they be included? Where else are you going to view a Target-manufactured phone or an Apple notebook not just as a functional object, but as a piece of sculpture?

All the pieces in the museum will make you think. For example, what was an artist trying to say by making his chair out of cement? What similarities do the artists see in a chair for them to title their very different creations with the same name? Or look at Allan Wexler’s Prototype, Picket Fence Furniture (1985), a fence built with chairs extending from it made from the same picket material. Wexler noticed that the fence is normally a divide and hoped that by combining it with chairs he could facilitate communication despite the divide. One cabinet by Lyn Gooleg and Lloyd Schwan had an interesting kidney-like shape. Designer Ronald Lytel of Thomson Multimedia designed a prototype Internet radio for RCA in 1998 that resembles a moose head. It looked like it should have been hung on the wall alongside real souvenirs of the hunt.

Another recent exhibit “Form and Content: Corporeal Identity/Body Language,” exhibited more than 200 works by German and American artists with a focus on how the artists treat the human form. The museum states that the exhibit examined “symbolic associations with various parts of the body and personal explorations of the relationship between body and self.” Some of the artwork in the exhibit addressed the new implications of medical and biological science for the human body. So, again, this would not have been an exhibit for everyone, but if you are interested in how the body is interpreted by recent and contemporary culture as a part of your research this exhibit could be very helpful to you.

If you’re interested in a particular exhibit, the museum educators recommend that you start by looking up the exhibit on the museum’s website [http://www.americancraftmuseum.org] and then call and make an appointment to look at the exhibit’s catalogue, which provides a great deal of additional information. Also, catalogues are available for you to look at from past exhibits. You should also take a look at information on the events program, “mad about design,” available online [http://www.americancraftmuseum.org] and in brochures at the museum. Events include everything from family and group workshops to teacher training, gallery tours, lectures, panel discussions, teacher training, concerts, courses, and demonstrations. You can do anything from making architectural drawings of your own original building, to making a toy, to printmaking, clay sculpture, to discussing the design process or the American Folk Art Museum building (designated Best New Building in NYC in 2001), to discussing the design of memorials, to learning about the gallery first hand in a tour led by a museum educator, to building your own chair, to creating collages to be printed on fabric by using computer generated design concepts, to learning how to use a pottery wheel. While some of the programs require a fee, several of them are free with museum admission and something you should definitely look into. While the schedule of most of the programs varies, the gallery tours are generally held the first Thursday of every month from 6-7 PM.