Five Museums Join Forces To Offer Special All-Access Pass for the Month of May

New York, NY - This spring, mid-century culture can be found in museums across New York City in exhibitions focused on art, design, advertising, television, and popular culture from the 1950s and '60s. This nostalgia for mid-century culture has captivated the public interest through television shows like Mad Men and a recent resurgence of design from the era. In celebration, five museums are partnering on Mid-Century May NYC, offering a special culture pass for the month of May. Priced at only $30, the ticket grants month-long access to all five participating museums - Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, The Jewish Museum, Museum of Arts and Design, Museum of the City of New York, and Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.

Information and tickets are available at http://www.MidCenturyMay.nyc

Mid-Century May NYC museum participants and exhibition information:

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

2 East 91st Street (between 5th and Madison Avenues)

How Posters Work 

May 8 - November 15, 2015

How Posters Work shows how dozens of different designers-from prominent pioneers like Herbert Matter, Paul Rand, Philippe Apeloig and M/M (Paris), to lesser-known makers-have mobilized principles of composition, perception and storytelling to convey ideas and construct experiences. Featuring nearly 125 posters from Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection, the exhibition demonstrates how some of the world's most creative designers have employed design principles to produce powerful acts of visual communication.

The Jewish Museum

Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street

Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television

May 1 - September 20, 2015

Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television, the first exhibition to explore how avant-garde art influenced the look and content of network television in its formative years, will be on view at the Jewish Museum from May 1, 2015 through September 20, 2015. From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, the pioneers of American television - many of them young, Jewish, and aesthetically adventurous - adopted modernism as a source of inspiration. Revolution of the Eye looks at how the dynamic new medium of television, in its risk-taking and aesthetic experimentation, paralleled and embraced cutting-edge art and design. The exhibition is organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, and the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Highlighting the visual revolution ushered in by American television and modernist art and design of the 1950s and 1960s, the exhibition features over 260 art objects, artifacts, and clips. Fine art and graphic design, including works by Saul Bass, Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Andy Warhol, as well as ephemera, television memorabilia, and clips from historic television programs and film, including Batman, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Ernie Kovacs Show, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and The Twilight Zone will be on view.

Museum of Arts and Design

2 Columbus Circle

Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft and Design, Midcentury and Today

April 28, 2015 - September 27, 2015

Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft and Design, Midcentury and Today considers the important contributions of women to modernism in postwar visual culture. In the 1950s and 60s, an era when painting, sculpture, and architecture were dominated by men, women had considerable impact in alternative materials such as textiles, ceramics, and metals. Largely unexamined in major art historical surveys, either due to their gender or choice of materials, these pioneering women achieved success and international recognition, establishing a model of professional identity for future generations.

Featuring more than 100 works, Pathmakers focuses on a core cadre of women-including Ruth Asawa, Edith Heath, Sheila Hicks, Karen Karnes, Dorothy Liebes, Alice Kagawa Parrott, Toshiko Takaezu, Lenore Tawney, and Eva Zeisel-who were influential as designers, artists, and teachers, using materials such as clay, fiber, and metals in innovative ways. Significantly, the group came to maturity along with the Museum of Arts and Design itself, which was founded in 1956 as the center of the emerging American modern craft movement.

The legacy of these women is conveyed through a section of the exhibition that presents works by contemporary female artists and designers that reflect and expand upon the work of the earlier generation. International and United States-based artists and designers featured in this section include Polly Apfelbaum, Vivian Beer, Front Design, Christine McHorse, Michelle Grabner, Hella Jongerius, Gabriel A. Maher, Magdalene Odundo, and Anne Wilson.

Museum of the City of New York

1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103rd Street)

Everything Is Design: The Work of Paul Rand

February 25 - July 19, 2015

Everything is Design: The Work of Paul Rand showcases the nearly six-decade career of visionary American graphic design master Paul Rand (1914-1996). Born in Brooklyn with a father who owned a small grocery store, Rand rose to the heights of 20th century design, seen as one of the most influential designers in the history of print and often called the 'Picasso of graphic design.' 

After launching his career with magazine cover designs introducing Europe's modernist graphic ideas to America, Rand worked as an art director on Madison Avenue and revolutionized the advertising profession. Illustrated through 150 pieces of Rand's work, the exhibition also includes his pioneering corporate communications and rebranding campaigns for IBM, and ground-breaking logos for ABC, UPS, Westinghouse, Morningstar, and Steve Job's NeXT project.  

Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Place, Battery Park City

Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism

On view through January, 2016

Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism is the first exhibition to explore the Jewish contribution to modernism. This is the first time this acclaimed exhibition, created by the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, is on view in New York.

The exhibition explores the role of Jewish architects, designers, and patrons in the formation of a new American domestic landscape during the post WWII decades of the twentieth century. Featuring a dazzling array of vintage furnishings, textiles, ceramics, posters, dinnerware, photographs, and more, Designing Home highlights the work of more than 30 creative professionals who helped spark America's embrace of midcentury modernism, a bold new direction in design and thought.

Designing Home showcases the essential contributions of both well-known designers and architects, among them Anni Albers, George Nelson, Richard Neutra, Alvin Lustig, Saul Bass, and Ernest Sohn; as well as others whose fascinating life stories and important contributions have received much less critical attention. The exhibition also examines significant patrons, merchants, and media figures who helped disseminate the midcentury modern aesthetic and worldview to a broad audience.

The promotional partner for Mid-Century May NYC is NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization for the City of New York.

Images from all participating exhibitions available upon request.