Hasta La Ideas

Just six days into 2010 and things are already looking up for the museum industry. Well, with at least one museum anyway. The Cooper-Hewitt has announced that they’ve been given a $600,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to bring back their popular “Design for the Other 90%” exhibit from 2007 and transform it into an ongoing series that will hope to both foster new ideas for using design to solve problems across the world and raising awareness as to what’s being done. Here’s info on how the grant will be used starting next year:

In fall 2011, Cooper-Hewitt will present the first in a series of exhibitions examining the complex issues arising from the unprecedented rate of population growth projected to take place over the next 20 years, primarily in the southern hemisphere. The exhibition, titled “Critical Mass,” will explore the multidisciplinary, overlapping relationships among urban planning and design, education, social entrepreneurship, climate change, sanitation and water, migration, public health and affordable housing in these underprivileged communities.

“The staff and board of trustees are thrilled to have the recognition and support of The Rockefeller Foundation for this invaluable work,” said Caroline Baumann, acting director of the museum. “This exhibition series demonstrates exactly how design is a dynamic force in transforming and, in many cases, saving lives around the world.”

We’re already wondering how David Stairs will react to this news.

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