On October 15, 2024, the Kusske Lecture & Dialogue Series hosted its fourth annual event with curator, author, educator, and architect Paola Antonelli of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). A signature program of the Kusske Design Initiative (KDI), the Kusske Lecture & Dialogue Series features renowned design practitioners and thought leaders whose work models ways of addressing humanity’s most pressing issues and generating solutions for our radically changing world.

In an inspiring lecture, Antonelli described ways in which design offers a profound lens through which we can better understand the ecosystems we inhabit. Antonelli believes that by adopting an animist perspective, we can foster constructive strategies for designing a better future for all—be it species, places, or even objects. Following her lecture, Antonelli was joined in conversation by College of Design Dean Prasad Boradkar, Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Emily Beverly of the College of Science and Engineering, and Director of the Center for Climate Literacy and Sidney and Marguerite Henry Professor of Children’s and Young Adult Literature Marek Oziewicz of the College of Education and Human Development.

About Paola Antonelli
Paola Antonelli joined The Museum of Modern Art in 1994 and is the Museum’s senior curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, as well as MoMA’s founding director of research and development. Her work investigates design in all its forms, from architecture to video games, often expanding its reach to include overlooked objects and practices. Her exhibitions, lectures, and writings contemplate design’s intersection and interaction with other fields (from technology and biology to popular culture) and with life—that of individuals, communities, all species, and all planets. Her goal is to promote people’s understanding of design, until its positive influence on the world is universally acknowledged.

An architect trained at the Polytechnic of Milan and a pasionaria of design, Antonelli has been named one of the 25 most incisive design visionaries in the world by TIME magazine, has earned the Smithsonian Institution’s Design Mind National Design Award, has been inducted in the US Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, and has received the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Artists) gold medal, the Compasso d’Oro from the Italian Association for Industrial Design, the London Design Medal, and the German Design Award, among other accolades.

Antonelli has curated shows at MoMA and in other international institutions, lectured worldwide in conferences ranging from TED to the World Economic Forum in Davos, and written copious essays and books. Following, among others, the 2019 XXII Triennale di Milano Broken Nature, devoted to the idea of restorative design, and the MoMA exhibitions Never Alone (2022, on video games and other interactive design) and Life Cycles (2023, on the materials of contemporary design), Paola is currently working on Design Emergency—the podcast and Instagram project she co-founded with Alice Rawsthorn in 2020 to highlight design’s role as key toward building a better future for all—and producing her renowned MoMA R&D Salons—thematic gatherings demonstrating the potential of museums as R&D departments for society.

About the Kusske Design Initiative
A generous commitment from Manitou Fund to the College of Design at the University of Minnesota honors the memory of distinguished alumnus Christopher Arthur Kusske (BLA ’78). The Kusske Design Initiative (KDI) reflects his legacy through widely inclusive events and collaborations among a growing design community. Through interdisciplinary dialogue, co-creativity, and celebration of the natural world, KDI programs and inquiries have transformative potential for the products we use, the places we inhabit, and the systems we tend. Learn more about KDI at kdi.umn.edu.

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