More than 70 historic and contemporary works spanning furniture, fiber, sculpture, jewelry, and experimental design now fill the Museum of Craft and Design in Dogpatch, where a landmark 1969 survey of American craft has been reborn for a new generation. The exhibition, titled Objects: USA, is on view at the museum's Third Street space through January 17, 2027.
The show traces its roots to a 1969 exhibition launched by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which featured more than 300 artists working in clay, enamel, fiber, glass, metal, mosaic, and wood, according to My Modern Met. New York art dealer Lee Nordness assembled a 300-object craft collection for S.C. Johnson & Son, according to the Archives of American Art. Nordness and Museum of Contemporary Crafts director Paul J. Smith selected the works, and S.C. Johnson funded the exhibition. S.C. Johnson purchased the pieces, many of which were later donated to the Museum of Arts and Design.
After its October 1969 debut at the Smithsonian's National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C., the show toured 22 American museums and 11 European venues, drawing more than 500,000 viewers, as Phaidon notes. The accompanying exhibition catalog, published in 1970, became a key reference work for craft and design, as Phaidon notes.
A Revival Six Years in the Making
The current presentation did not emerge overnight. Design scholar Glenn Adamson and New York gallery R & Company presented a 2020 exhibition mixing contemporary artists with artists from the original show, according to Design Miami. The current San Francisco exhibition was organized in collaboration with R & Company, per My Modern Met.
The Museum of Craft and Design show features 61 artists, 22 of whom originally participated in the 1969 Smithsonian survey, according to Squarecylinder.com. Bringing back nearly two dozen original participants lets visitors trace how specific artists' practices evolved over more than five decades. Historic artists represented include Wendell Castle, George Nakashima, Art Smith, and Kay Sekimachi, while contemporary makers include the Haas Brothers, Roberto Lugo, Tanya Aguiñiga, Nicole Cherubini, and Jolie Ngo, per My Modern Met.
Pairing Past and Present by Material, Not Timeline
Rather than arranging works chronologically, MCD curator Ariel Zaccheo organized the exhibition by material and aesthetic connections, placing 1969 historical works directly alongside contemporary pieces, as Mission Local reports. MCD, a non-collecting museum, presents the works in a non-hierarchical arrangement.
Among the key pairings on view: Wharton Esherick's 1938 Hickory Hammer Chair, made from wood recycled from old hammers, sits alongside Joyce Lin's 2022 Skinned Chair II, crafted from a found chair, epoxy clay, steel, and gold pigment, Squarecylinder.com reports. The pairing links Esherick's recycled-wood construction with Lin's contemporary conceptual approach to design.
Other featured works, per My Modern Met, include Wendell Castle's 1969 plastic and fiberglass piece Tongue; Richard Marquis's 1969-70 glass Hexagonal Stars and Stripes Bottle; Arline Fisch's 1973 Feather Plus Pectoral, made of sterling silver, fire gilt, feathers, leather, cameo, and pearls; Kim Mupangilalai's 2023 Bina Daybed, built from teak wood, volcanic stone, and rafia; the Haas Brothers' 2016 Mace Jones, made with Icelandic sheepskin, silver-plated cast bronze, and ebony; and Jolie Ngo's 2024 Table Lamp in Forced Perspective, built from stoneware, glaze, epoxy, wire, luster, and PLA plastic.
A Local Institution With Deep Craft Roots
Founded in 2004 near Union Square, the Museum of Craft and Design operated through pop-up exhibitions across city neighborhoods starting in 2010 before opening its permanent space inside the historic American Industrial Center at 2569 Third Street in Dogpatch in April 2013, according to the San Francisco Bay Times. California and the Bay Area played an important role in developing the American studio craft movement, per My Modern Met, giving the exhibition particular resonance in its current home.
Masha Berek is MCD's executive director, according to the museum. Of the exhibition, Berek said objects open a way into human relationships with beauty, tools, labor, and the body, per My Modern Met.
Part of a National Semiquincentennial Push
The exhibition arrives as San Francisco arts organizations received more than $25 million in municipal grants for the 2026-2027 cycle through the San Francisco Arts Commission and Grants for the Arts, according to the San Francisco Mayor's Office. That general operating support helps mid-sized institutions like MCD maintain financial stability.
The San Francisco presentation is also coordinated as part of Craft in America's nationwide Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 initiative, which unites museums and craft institutions across the country to highlight diverse traditions of American making as the nation marks its 250th anniversary, per the Voice of San Francisco. Objects: USA remains on view at the Museum of Craft and Design through January 17, 2027.
