Blossoms Abstracted, 2011

Olivia Mahler Haug is currently featured in the annual juried undergraduate exhibition at the Carroll Gallery at Tulane University.

Olivia was an apprentice, and is now an artisan in residence at the Museum and designer of the MicroPottery series at the Museum.

The Materials Library at Material Connexion

Most of you know about the loft storage area upstairs in the office.  Hundreds, no, thousands of pieces of plastic pieces, fabric swatches, electrical components, lenses, lights, etc. are stored up there.

But who knew there was a name for a place such as this (Other than “that place where Sally will kill you if you don’t put stuff back where it came from in a tidy fashion”)?

EWM Materials Library... and this is just the half of it.

Now, we know that all good design places have a Materials Library, and that we are definitely a good design place.

And, since Bill now calls the system the Sally Decimal System, we don’t want to mess things up Dewey?

• Monday, January 16th, 2012 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
• Ages 7-12
• $59.00 for nonmembers/$55.00 for members
• Register Here

On Martin Luther King’s Day, celebrate understanding, ingenuity and generosity.

Namibia occupies the Atlantic coast of southwest Africa. Its area is almost 5 times the size of New England but much of that land is unfriendly desert. Its population is small. Some of its people enjoy modern prosperity. But many toil to live from the land much as their ancestors did.

Construction materials are scarce. Margaret Courtney-Clarke, Tonia Von Lieres and local volunteers have used cast off polypropylene grain bags filled with the abundant desert sand, wire, and simple roofing felt to construct solid, comfortable homes that ward off the heat of summer and the cold of winter.

Construct a micro-experimental house using salt packs. Create its family and the meerkats, zebras, and elephants that inhabit it. Get to know DRC, Swakopmund where the first experimental house was built (and where Shiloh Jolie-Pitt was born.) With stories and music from Namibia. Consider the power of design to make a better world.

To honor Dr. King, the Museum will invest 30% of the tuition for this workshop in materials for the Sandbag Housing Project, DRC, Swakopmund, Namibia. www.margaret-courtney-clarke.com/projects.htm

Click here to register.

This video was sent to us by the parent of an Eli Whitney enthusiast – who used parts from our kits to create his own Whitney Relay at home.

Martha Lewis, one of the artists in this past year’s Leonardo Challenge, has her most recent piece – an armillary – on her website, here.

Click here to learn more about Martha, and her work.

Our Yale Presidential Fellow from two years ago, Gina Gonzalez (read about the program here) sent us a hello yesterday, wearing a very familiar t-shirt.

She is currently serving in the PeaceCorps, as a water and sanitation volunteer in Peru.

EWM, all over the world.

Moo Dog Knits featured a great article on the Studio of Martha Burns.  Martha offers sewing and weaving classes here at the Museum as a visiting artist during our Summer and Vacation programs.

A reminder:  The Eli Whitney Museum’s 32nd Annual Meeting will convene this Wednesday evening at 5:30 pm.

The theme:  New Tools for Design.

David Kelley, Founder of Stanford's d.school

Graciously, this past Monday’s Wall Street Journal introduced the topic in Carolyn Geer’s Innovation 101.  Oh Stanford, catch us if you can.

This video is a student’s Senior Capstone Speech at Chase Collegiate School.  His name is Zach Leff -  a former Summer Camper and EWM enthusiast.  His speech is a tribute to the annual Understanding Conflict series that takes place every summer, the Museum’s apprentices, and mostly, to Bill, the Museum’s Director.