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Tuesday 10am - 4:30pm Wednesday 10am - 4:30pm Thursday 10am - 7pm Friday 10am - 4:30pm

Goldstein Museum of Design

Name: Goldstein Museum of Design
Address: 1985 Buford Avenue, Saint Paul, MN, 55108, US
Telephone: (612) 624-7434
Price range: Not applicable

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Saint Paul, MN
Goldstein Museum of Design

Est. 1976
Academic museum at UMN College of Design. Education, exhibitions, and events based in McNeal Hall. McNeal Hall (1985 Buford Ave, St.

Study of GMD’s multidisciplinary design collection is available to students, faculty, K-12 and community groups, and researchers by appointment. Paul campus) contains the Goldstein Gallery, the Collection Research Center, and the administrative office. Additionally we have the HGA Gallery in Rapson Hall.

06/16/2026

Thank you for a fantastic conference AAMG! We enjoyed Iowa City, appreciated our University of Iowa hosts, and came away energized with new perspectives, resources, and friends.

Here's to the 400+ academic museums and galleries across the country, of all scopes and sizes!

1. Conference tote courtesy of Iowa City Downtown District
2. Keynote panelists Maura Pilcher, Bruce Scherting, Dr. Alisa Weinstein, and Cate Dicherry with moderator Dr. Tammie Walker
3. Interactive quilt by Carlee Latimer from the exhibition "Find Your Quilt" at UW Madison's Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture.
4. Spot-on panel (in spite of tornado-related disruption) "Doing a Lot with a Little: Creative Solutions for Small Museums" w/ Megan Hancock (Denison Museum), Charles Mason (Kruizenga Art Museum at Hope College), Marianne Eileen Wardle (College of Wooster Art Museum), and Christopher Yates (Ross Art Museum at Ohio Wesleyan University)
5. Captivating reverse spiral staircase at the Old Capitol Museum (The University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums)
6. Feed sack garments in the exhibition "Thrift Style" on view through August 11 at the Old Capitol Museum (The University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums)
7. Installation of bird eggs, "a marvel of container design," at the Museum of Natural History (The University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums)
8. Vintage "Anatomy of an Exhibit" display at the Museum of Natural History ( University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums)
9. "Close Looking" all-ages guide from (University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art)
10. Detail view of 's "The Black Gold Tapestry," a 220-foot long cultural history of fossil fuels, embroidered over 9 years and on view University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art through July 12, 2026.

06/09/2026

GMD is at the University of Iowa this week for the 2026 AAMG conference. Looking forward to our sessions and visiting University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art and The University of Iowa Pentacrest Museums!

06/07/2026

Thanks Saint Anthony Park Arts Festival for a great event yesterday and the chance to connect with hundreds of our St. Paul Campus neighbors!

06/05/2026

🌿 McNeal Hall got some landscaping love this week! Thank you to the UMN Landcare team for this improvement to our main entry point on Buford Circle.

06/04/2026

This Saturday, June 6, GMD is celebrating the nearby Saint Anthony Park Arts Festival!

We will be tabling at the Community Booths at the corner of Como Ave and W. Luther Place. Check out sapfest.org for participating artists, live music lineup, and food vendors.

If you're coming out, add on a visit to the Goldstein Gallery to see our current exhibition "Illusive Objects" in McNeal Hall—it's a quick 3 min drive / 14 min walk / 4 min bike away.

The gallery will be open this Saturday (free, as always) from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM for the occasion.

05/29/2026

Within the loaded discourse around fashion, body image, and styles deemed “flattering,” prevailing wisdom has long dictated that horizontal stripes widen while vertical stripes lengthen and slim. On view now in "Illusive Objects," this Chanel dress epitomizes that belief, deliberately switching from wide horizontal stripes on top to narrow vertical stripes below the bust. The design is intended to enhance the illusion of broader shoulders with a slimmer waist and longer legs.

Interestingly, the opposite effect has been asserted in academic studies. British psychologists in 2009 used three-dimensional female models to test the Helmholtz Illusion. (In 1925, Hermann von Helmholtz discovered that a square filled with horizontal lines appears taller and narrower than one with vertical lines.) Their findings showed that with two models of the same size, the one in horizontal stripes appeared thinner.

📍"Illusive Objects" is on view through July 2, 2026 in the Goldstein Gallery (McNeal Hall, level 2). Regular hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM and on Thursdays until 7:00 PM. Map and parking at z.umn.edu/gmd-visit.

🏷 Dress, 1978-1985. Chanel. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Miles (Shirley) Fiterman, 1992.035.019.

05/28/2026

Join us on Tuesday, June 2 at 5:00 PM for a free public program featuring Aimee Lagos, co-founder of Hygge & West! This event is in conjunction with our current exhibition Illusive Objects and in partnership with AIGA Minnesota.

Aimee's presentation will explore the history of wallpaper, its illusive properties, and relevant case studies in design and development at local home goods company Hygge & West.

🎟 Visit z.umn.edu/gmd-events to register. (Registration covers in-person and online attendance.)

📍In-person attendees will come to Room 10 in McNeal Hall (1985 Buford Ave, St. Paul), on the ground floor just to the right of the main atrium. First-time visitors can find a map and parking info at z.umn.edu/gmd-visit. The gallery will be open before and after the talk, until 7:00 PM. Snacks and beverages provided.

🌐 Online attendees will be emailed a zoom link after registration, before the event.

05/27/2026

On view now in "Illusive Objects," this stoneware vase tricks the eye with its basket-like appearance.

Weaving technology, which dates back thousands of years, creates planar, yet pliable materials with efficiency and regularity. For Kansas-based potter J. Edward Barker Jr., replicating a woven texture through carved stoneware was a one-time experiment. The title of this vase, Never Again…, reveals the painstaking process of achieving an even texture on rounded surfaces. The resulting vessel challenges our ability to distinguish between patterns created by subtractive methods (carving), and additive methods (overlapping strips of material).

📍"Illusive Objects" is on view through July 2, 2026 in the Goldstein Gallery (McNeal Hall, level 2). Regular hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM and Thursdays until 7:00 PM. Map and parking at z.umn.edu/gmd-visit.

🏷 The Never Again Weaving Motif on the Diagonal vase, 1999-2000. J. Edward Barker, Jr. Museum Purchase funded in part by the Friends of the Goldstein Gallery in memory of Timothy Trent Blade, 2000.031.001.

05/26/2026

On view now in "Illusive Objects" (and featured recently in The New York Times' "13 Garments That Changed Fashion"), the Delphos gown has long been considered an icon of early 20th-century artistic dress. While previously attributed to Venetian designer Mariano Fortuny, its design is now credited to his wife Henriette Negrin.

Named after the Charioteer of Delphi, a Greek statue of c. 470 BCE, and patented by Fortuny in 1909, it is made from woven silk that was pleated through a process never fully divulged. These slim-fitting gowns were supposedly worn with minimal or no undergarments and considered avant-garde for the period.

📍"Illusive Objects" is on view through July 2, 2026 in the Goldstein Gallery (McNeal Hall, level 2). Regular hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM and on Thursdays until 7:00 PM. Map and parking at z.umn.edu/gmd-visit.

🏷 Delphos evening gown and sash, 1910s-20s. Henriette Negrin and Mariano Fortuny. Anonymous Gift, 1984.014.020a-c.

05/21/2026

On view now in "Illusive Objects," the July/August 1979 issue of Push Pin Graphic magazine was dedicated to the theme of Grand Illusion.

💀 The selected spread includes the famous double-illusion image "All is Vanity," created in 1902 by American illustrator Charles Allan Gilbert (1873-1929).

🍪 The trompe l'oiel (eye-deceiving) illustration reproduced above the case is the center spread of the same issue, by Japanese artist Haruo Miyauchi.

Push Pin Graphic was the showcase magazine of the influential Push Pin Studios in New York, published between 1957 and 1980 and art directed by AIGA Medalist Seymour Chwast. This issue was designed by Richard Mantel and introduced by Managing Editor Ken Robbins: “Illusion is not quite a lie, nor is it yet a truth, but it exists in that paradoxical space betwixt the two extremes where lie the realms of love, magic, dreams, art, philosophy, and, of course, bu****it and narcolepsy.”

Address

1985 Buford Avenue
Saint Paul, MN
55108

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	10am - 4:30pm
Thursday	10am - 7pm
Friday	10am - 4:30pm

Telephone

(612) 624-7434

Website

https://campsite.bio/goldsteinmuseum

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