Goldstein Museum of Design facts for kids
McNeal Hall
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| Former name | Goldstein Gallery |
|---|---|
| Established | 1976 |
| Location | McNeal Hall 1985 Buford Avenue Falcon Heights, Minnesota, United States |
| Type | Design museum |
| Owner | University of Minnesota College of Design |
| Public transit access | Buses 121 Campus Connector or 87 to Buford Avenue |
| Nearest car park | Buford Circle or the Gortner Avenue Ramp |
The Goldstein Museum of Design (GMD) is an exciting museum at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. It's part of the university's College of Design. Started in 1976, it's the only museum in the Upper Midwest that focuses on designed objects.
The museum has about 34,000 items. Around 21,000 of these are costumes and fashion accessories. GMD helps people learn by looking at real objects. Its collection is a great resource for students, teachers, designers, and the public. Most of GMD's items were given as gifts, often from people in Minnesota. You can see about 20% of the collection online, as they have been digitally photographed.
Contents
The Story of GMD
The Goldstein Museum of Design is named after two sisters, Harriet and Vetta Goldstein. They were teachers at the University of Minnesota. They taught in what was then called the College of Home Economics. Today, it's the College of Design.
Harriet (1883–1974) started teaching in 1910. Her younger sister, Vetta (1890–1982), joined her in 1914. The sisters loved to collect interesting items. They used these items to show their students examples of good and bad design. The Goldstein sisters traveled a lot. They found many objects on their trips, including a world tour in 1925-1926. Harriet wrote about this trip in her journal, Diary of a Trip Around the World.
The sisters also wrote a famous textbook called Art in Every Day Life. This book became a standard for teaching design. The last edition was printed in 1954, after they had retired. Their book was even translated into Chinese. It was used in a college in China by one of their former students. Both Harriet and Vetta left their teaching jobs in 1949. They spent the rest of their lives in Los Angeles.
How the Museum Started
The idea for the museum came from Natalja Hurley Klingel. She was a former student of the Goldstein sisters. Klingel suggested creating a special room or gallery to honor Harriet and Vetta. In 1974, this idea became part of the plans to expand McNeal Hall. This building is where the Design Department is located.
The Goldstein Gallery officially opened on October 14, 1976. Harriet had passed away by then, but Vetta was there for the dedication. The museum was first known as the Goldstein Gallery. Over time, its name changed to The Goldstein: a Museum of Design. By 2000, it became known as the Goldstein Museum of Design.
Cool Exhibitions
GMD puts on several exhibitions each year. You can see them in McNeal Hall. They also have shows in HGA Gallery at Rapson Hall in Minneapolis. These exhibitions feature amazing designs.
Here are some past exhibitions:
- Interplay: Perspectives of the Design Legacy of Jack Lenor Larsen (2001)
- From Head to Toe: The Finishing Touch – fashion accessories 1800–1959 (2002)
- Bonnie Cashin: An Elegant Solution (2003)
- Mind over Matter, Body Under Design: Bodyworks by Key Sook Geum (2005)
- From Sportswear to Streetwear: American Innovation (2008)
- Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller (2009)
- Flights of Fancy: A History of Feathers in Fashion (2010)
- Beyond Peacocks and Paisleys: Handcrafted Textiles of India and its Neighbors (2011)
- Polarities: Black and White in Design (2011)
- Character in Costume: A Jack Edwards Retrospective (2012)
- Redefining, Redesigning Fashion: Designs for Sustainability (2013)
- Signed by Vera: Scarves by an Iconic Designer (2014)
- America’s Monsters, Superheroes and Villains: 60 years of Toys Referencing Monsters (2015)
- Design Cycles, A Bike Show (2015)
In 2016, GMD celebrated its 40th birthday. They had a special exhibition. It showed 40 different objects from their amazing collection.
What's in the Collections?
The Goldstein Museum of Design has many different types of items. They are grouped into several collections.
Fashion and Costumes
The main part of GMD's collection is costumes. It has about 21,000 items. These items date back to 1790. This collection includes almost 1,800 hats and 1,000 pairs of shoes and boots. It also has many other fashion accessories. These include purses, gloves, and fans.
Some of the costumes are haute couture. This means they are high-fashion designs. They include works by famous designers like Christian Dior, Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, and Yves Saint Laurent.
The costume collection started with a donation. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Fashion Group gave many fashion garments to GMD. A well-known fashion icon from Minneapolis, Margot Seigel, also gave many important pieces. The collection grew even more when Dayton's, a department store, donated items from their designer fashion section. GMD also has a large collection of world costumes. The International Institute of Minnesota donated almost 600 of these items. Other special collections include over 1,800 scarves designed by Vera Neumann. There are also more than 50 evening gowns by Oscar de la Renta.
Textiles, Art, and Graphic Design
GMD has about 5,000 textile items. This includes a large collection of fabrics designed by Jack Lenor Larsen. His design archive was partly given to the University of Minnesota.
There are also about 2,500 decorative arts items. Many of these came from the Goldstein sisters' own collections. Some notable items include art pottery pieces from the 1920s. These were donated by Ruth Hanold Crane. There's also a collection of over 50 Chinese and Japanese curios. These include snuff bottles and jade figures. Robert Soman donated these.
The GMD collection also has about 660 graphic design items. This includes a full set of Emigre design magazines. These magazines were published from 1984 to 2005. More recently, GMD has started collecting product designs. This includes tea kettles by Michael Graves and Aldo Rossi. They also have a first-generation iPad and juicers by Philippe Starck.
Museum Directors
- Gertrude Esteros (1976–1980)
- Mary Stieglitz-Witte (1981–1982)
- Joanne B. Eicher (1983–1987)
- Marla C. Berns (1988–1991)
- Suzanne Beizermann (1991–1997)
- Lindsey Shen (1997–2005)
- Lin Nelson-Mayson (2005–2021)
- Jean McElvain (2021–2023)
- Aidan O'Connor (2023-present)
