Based on the recent publication America Goes Modern: The Rise of the Industrial Designer, MFA curator and author Nonie Gadsden will explore the foundations of industrial design in the United States and present a close examination of selected masterworks from the era. Ms. Gadsden will be introduced by Tony Fusco, author on Art Deco and Co-Producer of Boston Design Week. Each of these pieces offers a window into the social, cultural, technological, and economic world in which they were made and used. Included will be sleek furniture, vibrant ceramics, streamlined metalware, and innovative plastics from leading designers of the era.

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During the 1920s and 1930s, the speed of modern life in the United States — accelerated by advances in transportation, communication, technology and advertising — changed not only how people lived their lives, but also the objects they chose to live with. A new profession emerged to help American manufacturers and consumers navigate the overwhelming transitions of the era: the industrial designer. Through the power of form, color, ornament, and materials, the earliest practitioners created a modern aesthetic that came to represent American hopes, dreams, and fantasies.

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Ms. Gadsden will explore the foundations of industrial design in the United States and present a close examination of selected masterworks from the era. Each of these pieces offers a window into the social, cultural, technological, and economic world in which they were made and used. Included will be sleek furniture, vibrant ceramics, streamlined metalware, and innovative plastics from leading designers of the era.

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Nonie Gadsden is the Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her latest book, America Goes Modern: The Rise of the Industrial Designer is available for purchase at https://www.mfa.org/publication/america-goes-modern