Paola Lenti

Paola Antonelli is one of the world's foremost design experts and was recently rated as one of the top one hundred most powerful people in the world of art by "Art Review." She is a Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art.

The recipient of a laurea degree in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano university in 1990, Paola Antonelli has curated several architecture and design exhibitions in Italy, France, and Japan. She has been a Contributing Editor for Domus magazine (1987-91) and the Design Editor of Abitare (1992-94). She has also contributed articles to several publications, among them Metropolis, the Harvard Design Review, I.D. magazine, Paper, Metropolitan Home, Harper's Bazaar and Nest.

MoMA Curator

Antonelli joined the Museum of Modern Art in February 1994 and is a Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design. Her first acclaimed exhibition for MoMA, Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design (1995), was followed by Thresholds: Contemporary Design from the Netherlands (1996), Achille Castiglioni: Design! (1997- 98), Projects 66: Campana/Ingo Maurer (1999), Open Ends, and Matter (September 2000 - February 2001). Her exhibition, Workspheres (2/8-4/22/2001) was devoted to the design of the workplace of the near future.

From 1991 to 1993, Antonelli was a Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught design history and theory. In the spring of 2003, she started to teach a course of Design Theory at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She has lectured on design and architecture in Europe and the United States and has served on several international architecture and design juries.

Antonelli's goal is to promote design's understanding role until its influence on society and on progress is fully acknowledged. She has curated the exhibition entitled Safe in 2005 based on her show at the International Design Conference in Aspen (August 20-23, 2003) similarly entitled Safe: Design Takes on Risk. Other recent projects include a book about foods from all over the world as examples of outstanding design and a television program on design. She's also trying to get a Boeing 747 into the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Appearances

TED Talk: http://theutubeblog.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/moma-design-cur.html

Charlie Rose Show: http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/05/07/1/design-and-the-elastic-mind