Museum of Design Atlanta

Coordinates: 33°47′25″N 84°23′5″W / 33.79028°N 84.38472°W / 33.79028; -84.38472

Museum of Design Atlanta
Established	1993
Location	1315 Peachtree Street Atlanta
Type	Design museum
Director	Brenda Galina Laura Flusche
Website	www.museumofdesign.org

The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) is a design museum located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. MODA is the only museum in the Southeast devoted exclusively to the study and celebration of all things design.

Overview

The Museum examines how design affects people's daily lives through exhibitions, K-12 educational outreach, and adult programming. MODA regularly features exhibitions on architecture, industrial and product design, interiors and furniture, graphics, fashion and more. The museum is located on Peachtree Street, across from the High Museum of Art, in Midtown.^[1]

History

MODA first opened in 1993 as the Atlanta International Museum of Art & Design, and was located in the Peachtree Center district of Downtown Atlanta. In 2003, after receiving a series of local grants, the group rebranded and refocused itself as a design museum, launching a critically lauded run of exhibits on subjects such as Bauhaus virtuoso Marcel Breuer, Japanese architecture, and ladies handbag design.^[2]

In 2011, MODA opened at its present location at 1315 Peachtree Street on the ground floor (and former parking garage) of a building restored by the architectural firm Perkins+Will. While the upper floors house Perkins+Will and the Peachtree Branch of the Atlanta Public Library, the Museum occupies 9,000 square feet (840 m²) of street-level space in the building that is LEED Platinum certified — the highest environmental rating awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council.^[3]

Exhibitions

The first exhibit at the Museum's new Midtown location was Passione Italiana: Design of the Italian Motorcycle. Curated by Joe Remling of ai3, Inc., the exhibition presented a dozen Italian motorcycle designs spanning the last five decades with designs by MV Agusta, Ducati, Bimota, and Moto-Morini.^[3]

2011 exhibitions also include WaterDream, a survey of the history of bathroom design, followed by a retrospective of a quarter-century of international AIDS posters. A collection of costumes meticulously made of paper by Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave is also being considered, in an addition to an exhibition of architectural models by octogenarian Frank Gehry.^[2]

Museum space

MODA logo

The exhibit space at MODA is 6,500 square feet (600 m²) in two main galleries with clean, industrial lines and versatile concrete floors. The front desk area can double as a reception space and the back gallery has a vaulted ceiling with windows stretching up two stories. The museum has a built-in A/V system with ceiling-mounted digital projectors, track lighting that switches on in the blink of a motion detector, and banks of security cameras.^[2]

See also

• High Museum of Art
• SCAD-Atlanta

References

1. ^ http://www.museumofdesign.org/about.htm
2. ^ ^{a b c} http://clatl.com/atlanta/museum-of-design-atlanta-makes-game-changing-debut-in-midtown/Content?oid=2941438
3. ^ ^{a b} http://midtown.patch.com/articles/museum-of-design-atlanta-drives-into-midtown

External links

• Museum of Design Atlanta website