plural blog

Alice Rawsthorn writes critically about design for the International Herald Tribune, which is syndicated worldwide, and in her Object Lesson column for the New York Times Magazine.   Following a degree in art and architectural history from Cambridge University, she was director of the Design Museum in London (2001-2006). An esteemed author, her publications include an acclaimed biography of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.  Rawsthorn has served on numerous juries including the Turner Prize for contemporary art and the British Council’s selection panel for the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Zoë Ryan is the Art Institute of Chicago’s Neville Bryan Curator of Design, the first to hold this position, established in 2006 with her appointment.  In addition to building the museum’s first collection of contemporary design, housed in the Modern Wing, she has organized solo exhibitions of the work of Graphic Thought Facility and Konstantin Grcic and is currently engaged in co-curating an exhibition that looks at the interrelationship between architecture and design, to open in December 2010.  Her extensive written work includes a forthcoming publication Building with Water: Concepts. Typology, Design, which will be published by Birkhäuser GmbH in 2010.

This lecture is made possible by generous support from the Auxiliary Board of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund. The Architecture & Design Society gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of Park Hyatt Chicago