Bellevue Arts Museum explores the unique character of Northwest design in The New Frontier

The New Frontier: Young Designer-Makers in the Pacific Northwest on view April 17 – August 16, 2015

The Bellevue Arts Museum, a leading destination in the Pacific Northwest, from April 17 to August 16, 2015 hosts The New Frontier: Young Designer-Makers in the Pacific Northwest. The exhibition presents works by emerging designer-makers with nearly 30 design studios from British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon contributing to the exhibition. Examining the materials, processes, and creative strategies that define their practices, the exhibition acts as a catalyst for the discussion of how objects and products are conceived and created here; who is making them; and how the field of local design is reflective of our unique region. More

The frontier represents the final boundary, signifying a geographic region as well as an abstract realm where original ideas evolve and take shape. In “the new frontier”—on the cusp of the unknown and untested—designer-makers are resetting boundaries, playing by their own rules, and establishing innovative models for creating, producing, and distributing goods.

Picture taken at the Bellevue Arts Museum by Charlie Schuck, pieces Something Like This Design, Eugene, OR

The Pacific Northwest, still a frontier for industrial design production, is home to an inspiring population of young makers who are forging creative practices based on untested economic models stemming from both pre-industrial craft production and cutting-edge technologies. Driven by a need to create beautiful, functional objects, these pioneers form ideas, locate resources, and utilize processes available to them on the frontier. This phenomenon, globally conscious but regionally based, represents the new creative economy.

Picture taken at the Bellevue Arts Museum by Charlie Schuck, piece by Iacoli & McAllister, Seattle, WA

The New Frontier: Young Designer-Makers in the Pacific Northwest is organized by Bellevue Arts Museum and co-curated by Charlie Schuck and Jennifer Navva Milliken.

To know more about the museum and the exhibition visit bellevuearts.org.

Picture taken at the Bellevue Arts Museum by Charlie Schuck, pieces by Aleph Geddis, Orcas Island, WA

Jennifer Navva Milliken, Curator of Craft, Bellevue Arts Museum, was part of WantedDesign Conversation Series “From Brooklyn to Detroit: the evolution of the “making cities” in the US, and the role manufacturers play in transforming the cities landscape.”