Collections of industrial and product design: a pathway for improved economic development connections among cultural institutions

Abstract

This research investigates US cultural institutions housing collections of industrial and product design (IPD) and explores how IPD are collected, curated, and exhibited to uncover the barriers and opportunities that exist in connecting these collections to economic development. Based on key person interviews with nine institutions, this inquiry finds the collections generally are not externally integrated as a local or regional economic development asset. The full depths of these collections are somewhat concealed within the institutions because of their curation across departments or through a broader Decorative Arts lens. Using a framework of arts and culture research and development, this article argues that IPD collections represent an opportunity for greater engagement of cultural institutions in culturally oriented economic development strategies that pair their expertise and assets with those of the private sector.

Keywords:

• industrial and product design
• arts economic development
• arts and culture R&D

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Ned Hill for his valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this article, and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments. The author is also indebted to all of the individuals who accepted interview requests and graciously offered their time to support this research. Finally, the author thanks Clea Newman and Maria Agosto for their assistance with interview transcriptions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. There are no page numbers in the Bakhshi et al. (2009) report.

2. In product-cycle theory, ‘economic development is defined as the creation of new products and the diffusion of standardized products’ and this approach to economic development is supported by ‘active government intervention to change regional specializations by encouraging the diffusion of standardized products and the creation of new products’ (Malizia and Feser 1999, pp. 177–178).

3. Additional interviews were conducted with two smaller institutions, the Madsonian Museum of Industrial Design (Waitsfield, VT) and the Museum of Ceramics (East Liverpool, OH), but they were not included in the final analysis.

4. DMB hosts the Boston Creative Mornings chapter, see http://creativemornings.com/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding through the Center for the Next Generation Economy at Cleveland State University.