Mark Dudlik

Here is the welcome letter we have posted next to the entrance of the Phoenix Design Museum.
____________

The Phoenix Design Museum is a pop-up concept meant to highlight Phoenix and its unique culture and community. We’ve put together a collection of exhibitions in the oldest warehouse in Phoenix on an extremely limited budget and with the hard work of a small team of dedicated, passionate individuals.

This warehouse is owned by Michael Levine, whose devotion to the historical preservation of buildings in downtown Phoenix is inspirational, to say the least. In working with him on this project, the entire team has been motivated, learned about the history of our city and grown to appreciate stories that are not told often enough.

We are working with Mookesh Patel and the White family to catalogue the late Ken White’s archives, which include journals and teaching materials, in addition to the posters on display in this space. This collection’s importance to the history of design is immediately evident in the work shown, and the impact will be even more clear when we’re able to share his entire story.

We spent countless hours over the past month and a half cleaning and restoring portions of this 106 year old building. Late nights and hard work because we care about design, we care about the history of our city and giving new voice to the power of our citizens. This museum, open for a month only at a time in different locations, is meant to be an ephemeral experience, an added story in the timeline of the history of this building and the history of Phoenix.

Not only do we realize this is not like other museums, we embrace it. We create experiences beyond just being inspired by the work being shown, but by the place you live in, the community you are a part of.

The museum is also a collaboration across the country, showing the breadth of influence that design can have in bringing people together. This project will be done in Chicago, as an extension and partner of the museum in Phoenix

We hope you appreciate the time and effort that went into this pop-up. We also hope you take home something to your city and find ways to use design to better your community and those around you.

And most of all, we hope to see you when we do it all again.

Signed:
Mark Dudlik
Tanner Woodford
Andrew Coppola
Jim Nissen
Kris Olmon
Raquel Raney

I have been working on a few huge projects over the past year with Tanner Woodford and they are slowing sneaking out of our heads and into reality.

We’re doing a couple short-term “pop-up” ideas that will be happening in October as part of Phoenix Design Week[s].

One of those is the Phoenix Design Museum. The museum will be open first for the month of October and feature two traveling exhibitions as well as a selection from part of the permanent collection. Yes, the permanent collection. While the idea is to have the museum be limited engagement exhibitions, there are also plans to develop archives and create materials (books, posters, etc) for them. Last week, we got a huge and amazing donation that I will talk about when the details are finalized. Phoenix is going to have a Design Museum in October. I’ll admit, it’s still weird saying it out-loud.

Another project that we’ve been working on is Ignorance & Ambition. It’s also a “pop-up” and it’s going to be the shop for the museum. I think its going to be amazing to have a museum shop that only has limited edition, locally designed products. There are 30 designers and counting participating and a lot of fun things that they’re all going to make.

Part of the Museum + I&A is generating some money to get these things going. To do that, we started with a t-shirt sale. There are 3 shirts created by store participants (and myself) that will be available for another two weeks over at http://ignoranceandambition.com. (You can also find out why the crazy name.) They are limited edition as well, in keeping with the store. They are only available for the 30 days they are on sale at the site, then gone forever!

We’ll be doing this every month, year round.

The shirts are being produced by Tumble Tees and the proceeds go to funding the Museum/Store and getting things going. We had thought of doing a Kickstarter or something similar, but why not let the designers excellent work speak for itself?

I’ll keep everyone updated, but in the mean time, buy a shirt and keep your ears/eyes open for all the amazing stuff happening in Phoenix this fall.