Presenter - Jennifer Bracchi

Jennifer Bracchi, Acting Head Librarian, Cooper Hewitt Museum
Afternoon Breakout Session

Museum as Color Educator: Two Case Studies

In 1960, Cooper Union Museum (now Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum) held one of its most significant exhibitions – The Logic and Magic of Color. Featuring over 300 objects, it involved museum staff, Art and Physics faculty, and the manufacturing world. On display just three years before Josef Albers’ Interaction of Color, many factors suggest he was directly involved. WPA artist and color theorist Hilaire Hiler was also included. The exhibition led to the ISCC donating several of its founding members’ libraries - Dorothy Nickerson, Walter Granville, Howard Ketcham, I. H. Godlove - to the Cooper Union Museum Library (now Smithsonian Libraries, Cooper Hewitt). These donations combined with the holdings of other branches makes Smithsonian Libraries one of the leading resources and most definitive collection of color related books in the United States and the world. Nearly 60 years later, Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color, presented by Cooper Hewitt and Smithsonian Libraries (May 11, 2018 - March 17, 2019) was inspired largely by the ISCC members’ donations and included many of their books. Featuring 190 objects, 44 rare books and 146 museum pieces, this exhibition brought books and objects together in an unprecedented way. After the first color exhibition, an ISCC Newsletter reveals that the Cooper Union Museum went on to create the “Color Center" which continued to collect related content and had one dedicated employee, Walter Granville. Following the closing of Saturated last March, I’ve been asked to give multiple color presentations to a variety of audiences and it has sparked conversation of future exhibitions at different Smithsonian museums and beyond. By examining these two exhibitions, I hope to expose the historical legacy and impact that a museum exhibition can have and what role they might play to further promote color literacy to non-traditional audiences.

Bio

Jennifer Cohlman Bracchi is the Acting Head Librarian of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library, one of 21 branches of Smithsonian Libraries, and a leading repository of European and American design and decorative arts in the nation and the world. With twenty years of experience at Cooper Hewitt, Jen has a background in digital imaging and has lead numerous digital initiatives for the Museum and the Library. She curated her first exhibition Color in a New Light (February 2016 – May 2017) for Smithsonian Libraries at the ‪National Museum of Natural History‬ in Washington DC. She co-curated the expanded exhibition Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 2018 – March 2019) for Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum with Susan Brown, Curator of Textiles. She enjoys exploring the intersections of art and science and providing access to as much information as possible.