MAD | Museum of Arts and Design

10/18/2026

Happy Birthday to metalsmith and MAD Collection artist Kiff Slemmons, born on this day in 1944.

“The found material that I choose to use is often relevant to ideas I’m exploring through a series of pieces. I’m using the associations, the histories, that these pieces still hold. It’s their metaphoric possibilities that set off sparks for me, and such sparks may connect with other viewers, countering their assumptions about the material itself or causing wonder at what may be contained in a piece of jewelry.” – Kiff Slemmons.

Slemmons’s work transforms overlooked design details of everyday objects into intriguing compositions, drawing on their past associations and symbolism to give them new meaning as jewelry. Many of her pieces, including “The Pointillist,” were inspired by her father, a newspaper publisher, who always carried a ruler and pencil. She often incorporates these tools into her jewelry to suggest how we measure and record our lives.
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Kiff Slemmons
The Pointilist,1999
Silver and pencils

10/16/2026

Long before it became a global name, Nike was a small Oregon company rooted in track and field.

College runner Phil Knight and his former University of Oregon coach, Bill Bowerman, founded the company. Most early employees and customers were serious amateurs and collegiate athletes, with only a handful of professionals helping promote the brand. Marketing was grassroots, with sales reps taking shoes directly to track meets.

In those early years, the company settled on one of its key design principles: always listen to the voice of the athlete. Bowerman took that literally, making and remaking shoes for the runners he coached.

See some of the founding-era artifacts in person at MAD this weekend

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Image 1:
Publicity shot of Bill Bowerman in his
workshop at the Eugene Lab, 1980
© Nike, Inc

Image 2: Installation photo. Photo credit: Jenna Bascom

10/15/2026

Don’t miss this Saturday’s Before Hours Tour of Nike: Form Follows Motion! During this early-access tour led by our expert guide and Nike sneaker collector, you’ll get the chance to get up close with Nike design rarities, learn about the brand’s creative partnerships with sports legends, see archival prototypes, sketches, and experiments, and step inside an installation of Nike collabs with icons across fashion, music, sports, and more.

Tap the link below to reserve your tickets:
https://madmuseum.org/events/nike-form-follows-motion-hours-guided-tour

10/14/2026

Opening October 27, “John Procario: Freeforms” highlights the contemporary designer’s sinuous ribbons of bent wood LED light sculptures and undulating furniture designs. The first solo museum presentation of Procario’s work, the exhibition features suspended light sculptures, sconces, seating, and freestanding works in which ash wood is bent by hand into open, looping forms and illuminated from within.

Procario's sculptures begin with a material pushed close to its limits. Using a process of freeform bentwood lamination, he bends thin layers of ash wood into curves that are then bonded into permanent forms, often working from no more than a rough sketch. The resulting works occupy a space between sculpture and design, asking viewers to consider how material, technology, and the human body can shape one another. Similarly, Procario’s Sculpted Sofas designs are completely informed by the shape and directionality of each work’s freeform wood base. Following an organic and intuitive creative process, Procario shapes surfaces through a slow-building practice that honors nature’s natural curves.

Tap the link below to learn more:
https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/john-procario-freeforms
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Image 1:
Vertical Freeform VII (2025)
John Procario

Image 2:
Freeform Ceiling Sculpture I (2024) and Sculpted Sofa I & II (2024)
John Procario

Image 3:
Anthropose IV (2026).
John Procario and Alex Roskin
Photos: Courtesy of Todd Merrill Studio and the designer

10/13/2026

🎃 Bring the whole family to our Sp 👀ktacular MAD Halloween Party! 🎃 Come dressed in your most creative costume and enjoy an afternoon of hands-on art-making and spooky fun! Build 3D Halloween pop-up cards with artist Hayley Ferber, craft pompom ghosts and pumpkins with Artist Studios Resident Karyn Lao, design your own mask, and play with giant inflatable sculptures by Mookntaka, a Brooklyn-based artist duo by Mark Zlotsky and Karyn Lao.


🗓️ Oct 30th / 3 - 6 PM
Tap the link below for tickets :
https://madmuseum.org/events/spooktacular-mad-halloween-party

10/12/2026

Relationships have always been central to the Nike brand, whether through personal connections, collaborations, or community-based design projects.

The N7 collection, launched in 2007, aimed to bring the benefits of sport to Native American and Indigenous communities in the USA and Canada. Nike distributed this model through tribal wellness programs and tribal schools.

Beyond honoring Indigenous culture through the N7 collection's designs, Nike’s Social & Community Impact team supports Indigenous youth sports through its N7 Fund.

See this N7 collection design and more collaborations in Nike: Form Follows Motion now on view. MAD is open today from 10 am – 6 pm. Tap the link below to plan your visit.

https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/nike-form-follows-motion
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Nike
Air Native 7, 2008.

10/11/2026

Run, don't walk to MAD this long weekend to experience Nike: Form Follows Motion.
The exhibition traces the brand's growth over the last five decades, from a small Oregon running company to a global cultural force. Featuring objects from the Department of Nike Archives (DNA), you'll see experimental prototypes, original design studies, rarities, and more.

The Museum is open today, Sunday, October 11, and tomorrow, Monday, October 12, from 10 am to 6 pm.

Tap the link below for tickets.
https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/nike-form-follows-motion

10/10/2026

Form follows motion, and so does our banner! Nike: Form Follows Motion is on view now.

Tap the link below to plan your visit:

https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/nike-form-follows-motion

10/09/2026

"Leave Your Thoughts Here" is a series of concrete wall sculptures and modular benches created by Jessica Lichtenstein, featuring hundreds of golden lockets embedded in their pitted surfaces. Unlike conventional jewelry engraved with aspirational or clichéd sentiments about love, hope, or gratitude, Lichtenstein’s lockets are inscribed with texts by women, drawn from social media, about their everyday thoughts and anxieties. Together, they form a chorus of protest, fantasy, and humor in women's own words. Explore these inner thoughts and more now on view in Jessica Lichtenstein: Rewilding.

Tap the link below for tickets:
https://madmuseum.org/exhibition/jessica-lichtenstein-rewilding

10/08/2026

“Children need to see themselves in stories, so that they’ll learn that their image, too, is beautiful.” - Faith Ringgold.

Artist Faith Ringgold was born on this day in 1930.

Ringgold’s work crossed art, writing, and activism. She spent much of her career fighting for more representation of women of color in galleries and museums. Her story quilts have become vehicles for Black feminist thought and offer much-needed alternatives to childhood favorites whose protagonists are white.

“Shades of Alice,” Ringgold’s story quilt in the MAD collection, retells “Alice in Wonderland” as a reflection on Black girlhood. Around the central painting Ringgold wrote out by hand, the adventures of a young Black girl who finds herself in a situation very different from that of Lewis Carroll’s Alice:

“Now I cannot find the white rabbit, and I am in a strange inner city with no sky. Peculiar looking animals who talk peer out of windows in buildings that have small doors. They have threatened to eat me, but they cannot agree on who or what I am, or how they should cook me. I told them my name is Alice in Wonderland and that I am Through the Looking Glass. They told me there was an Alice here once but that she looked nothing like me and that I must be someone else; so, they have made me stand on a stack of “Alice in Wonderland” books until I say who I really am.”

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Faith Ringgold
Shades of Alice, 1988/93
Canvas, fabric, acrylic paint

10/07/2026

Join multidisciplinary artist Honorroller on Wednesday, October 14, from 6 to 8 pm, for a nostalgic hands-on workshop inspired by Nike: Form Follows Motion. His playful sculptures draw on the low-poly look of '90s video games and the chunky silhouettes of the era's iconic basketball shoes.

You'll explore color, pattern, and symbolism to transform a familiar form into a one-of-a-kind work of art that tells your story, and leave with your own sneaker-inspired vase or vessel to display and enjoy. All materials provided. This program is discounted for MAD Members.

Tap the link below for tickets.

Inspired by the exhibition Nike: Form Follows Motion, this hands-on workshop invites participants to assemble and paint their own wooden sculptural sneaker vessel. The workshop will be led by artist and educator Honorroller, whose multidisciplinary practice combines sculpture, illustration, and gra...

10/07/2026

🗓🎟It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's Pay What You Wish at MAD!

Join us tonight to explore our current exhibitions, Jessica Lichtenstein: Rewilding and Nike: Form Follows Motion.

It's Pay What You Wish from 5–8 pm on the first Wednesday of every month.
Tickets are available in person only.

10/05/2026

This Wednesday, October 7, MAD and AIGA NY invite you to join artist and designer Julian Alexander, Doubleday & Cartwright co-founder Christopher Isenberg, and visual artist Simi Mahtani for a conversation exploring the intersection of design, sport, and performance. Anthony Harrison, a legendary designer in music, sport, and streetwear, will moderate the talk.

Drawing on perspectives from across the creative field, the conversation will consider the shared practices of sport and design—from experimentation and repetition to movement, instinct, and performance.

Tap the link below for tickets:
https://madmuseum.org/events/aiga-ny-design-sport-and-shape-our-future

10/03/2026

It’s the final weekend to see OUT of the Jewelry Box and Burke Prize|: Hai-Wen Lin. Don’t miss out! Tap the link below for tickets.

https://madmuseum.org/

Photo credit: Jenna Bascom

10/01/2026

Our before-hours tours of Nike: Form Follows Motion kick off Thursday, October 15th!

Explore the exhibition before the museum opens to the public with our tour guide and longtime Nike collector, and hear the stories behind the shoes.

Reserve your spot. Space is limited.
https://madmuseum.org/events/nike-form-follows-motion-hours-guided-tour

09/30/2026

You're invited to the MAD Gala on Monday, October 26!

Join us for MAD’s annual fundraising party celebrating the Museum’s 70th Anniversary.

Experience an artful evening of nostalgia and magic, glamour and sporty style, plus a few surprises! Toast the occasion with artist-led activities, food, entertainment, and dancing!

Proceeds benefit MAD’s exhibitions and programming.

Tap the link below for tickets.
https://madmuseum.org/events/mad-gala