CDES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director, Goldstein Museum of Design
Aidan O'Connor's broad view of design is rooted in experience with museums, galleries, nonprofits, and corporate partnerships at various scales. She was the Director of Strategic Initiatives for AIGA and a Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Architecture & Design at MoMA. Her involvement with exhibitions, collections, and education ranges from MoMA and Cooper Hewitt in New York to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology in Cambridge, Vandalorum in Sweden, and Hyundai Motorstudio in Beijing. Aidan has an impressive record of speaking engagements, program development, and publications. She has also worked for the National Design Awards, juried for the New York State Council on the Arts, and taught at Pratt Institute and SVA. Her MA in History of Design & Decorative Arts is from Parsons School of Design with Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; her BA in Archaeology and Social Anthropology is from Harvard University.
A native New Yorker with family ties to the Twin Cities, Aidan relocated to Minneapolis from Brooklyn in 2019 and has worked locally as an art advisor. The GMD appointment marks her return to museums, which have provided the foundation of her career in arts and culture since her first internship at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2001).
In Architecture & Design at MoMA, Aidan co-organized 14 exhibitions including regular installations of the permanent galleries and special exhibitions, notably Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen (2010) and Century of the Child: Growing by Design 1900-2000 (2012). All drew on the design collections (approx. 30,000 works) as well as those of MoMA's other curatorial departments, while Century of the Child also encompassed hundreds of global loans.
Following MoMA, she guest curated a major regional survey of Nordic design for children for Vandalorum Museum för Konst och Design in Värnamo, Sweden with director Elna Svenle. This traveled from Sweden to venues in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Berlin, and London from 2014-2018.
At AIGA (2013-16), she remained involved with exhibitions while managing the gallery at the National Design Center, including Dan Friedman: Radical Modernist (curated by Chris Pullman) and Century: 100 Years of Type in Design (curated by Monotype and produced by Pentagram). As Director of Strategic Initiatives, her primary responsibility was supporting national programs for Diversity & Inclusion, Women's Leadership, and Get Out the Vote.
Photo credit: Clarke Sanders
As an independent curator, she worked on exhibition projects for Hyundai, Prada, and Procter & Gamble in collaboration with design studio 2x4. During this period she taught graduate-level design history courses at Pratt and SVA. She recently contributed essays to exhibition catalogues for Designing Motherhood (MIT Press, 2021) and E. McKnight Kauffer: The Artist in Advertising (Cooper Hewitt, 2021).
Aidan also brings experience in grants and awards programs. As a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts (2016-2018), she evaluated hundreds of project and institutional grant applications to the Architecture & Design and Museums programs according to the council's primary criteria of artistic/programmatic excellence, managerial competence, and service to the public. Prior to NYSCA, she managed AIGA's annual awards program and helped secure an NEA grant for its Diversity & Inclusion Initiative (2016). And at the National Design Awards, she assisted with submissions, jury process, communications, and events (2007).
She has organized, moderated, and presented at public programs and conferences on behalf of Chicago Women in Architecture/Docomomo, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Nordic House in Reykjavik, AIGA, Bard Graduate Center, MoMA, Parsons, AIA New York, and the College Art Association.
Read more
Aidan O'Connor
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Artist
Job Titles:
- Teaching Specialist, Product Design
Job Titles:
- Head of the Department
- Product Design
- Professor
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Operations Manager, Student Services
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Product Design at the University
- Product Design
Dr. Carlye Lauff is an Assistant Professor of Product Design at the University of Minnesota. She earned her PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow studying the role of prototypes in companies. Carlye's research is in the field of Design Theory and Methodology, and she studies how designers engage in the product development process and then improves tools and methods to support them. Carlye works at the intersection of multiple disciplines including engineering, product design, education, management science, and the social sciences. She often draws on qualitative and mixed methods research in her work and collaborates across diverse disciplines. Dr. Lauff has worked with more than 25 global companies, ranging in industries from medical devices to consumer electronics to transportation systems to educational toys to footwear/apparel.
Lauff, C.A., Kotys-Schwartz, D., Rentschler, M.E., 2018, "What is a prototype? What are the roles of prototypes in companies?" Journal of Mechanical Design, 140(6), p.061102.
Job Titles:
- Photographer, Goldstein Museum of Design
Job Titles:
- Senior Lecturer, Product Design
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Instructor, Product Design
Job Titles:
- Curator, Goldstein Museum of Design / Lecturer
Job Titles:
- Product Design
- Teaching Specialist, Product Design
Job Titles:
- Registrar & Exhibitions Coordinator, Goldstein Museum of Design
Job Titles:
- Dora Agee Waller Graphic Design Graduate Assistant
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Teaching Specialist, Product Design / Dept:
Job Titles:
- Museum Preparator, Goldstein Museum of Design
Job Titles:
- Dora Agee Waller Collection Assistant
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Product Design at the University of Minnesota
- Program Director, Product Design
Dr. Dhadphale is an associate professor of product design at the University of Minnesota. He received his PhD from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. His research examines the relationship between culture, design thinking, and research methods in design education and practice. Trained as a design researcher, he is passionate about developing frameworks for designers and researchers to integrate cultural aspects into the design process. He teaches courses in culture of objects, design research methods, design thinking, creative thinking, transdisciplinary new product innovation, and human-centered design.
Credentials
PhD, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University
Tejas Dhadphale
Specialties & Expertise:
Culture and Design, Design Research Methods, Design Thinking, Human Factors, Creative Thinking, Product Design Education