San Francisco Design Museum Lands a Boundary-Pushing Curator
Nora Atkinson sees an opportunity to expand traditional notions of design and public art, and hopes to one day make admission free to all.
Founded in 2004, the Museum of Craft and Design has operated in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood since 2012.
Photographer: Matthew MillmanAfter more than 30 years, the visuals of Burning Man are clear. People who’ve never set foot on the playa recognize the annual festival in Nevada by its psychedelic sculptures and wicker statues.
But few people had considered Burning Man as a design phenomenon — a theme, a style and a method of production — until curator Nora Atkinson brought the burn to the Smithsonian Institution with “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man.” Her 2018 exhibit for the Renwick Gallery, the craft museum in Washington, DC, wowed viewers with projects that took up entire galleries and even extended outdoors. Attendance at the Renwick that year more than doubled.