Description
Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center (M/RWDC) preserves and shares Manitoga, the home, studio, and 75-acre woodland landscape created by the leading 20th century industrial designer Russel Wright. The site, one of very few 20th century modern homes with original, designed landscape open to the public, is an impressive example of land reclamation and integrated design. With Wright’s tandem philosophy of good design for all and an appreciation for nature as the cornerstones of its mission and programs, M/RWDC functions as a cultural and recreational destination, a center for design, and venue for contemporary visual and performing arts. It is a National Historic Landmark, and a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program.
Manitoga was begun in 1942, when Wright and his wife, the designer Mary Einstein Wright, purchased an abandoned industrial site in Garrison, New York, and began a 34-year transformation that would include the creation of a 30-foot waterfall and quarry pool, and house and studio (Dragon Rock), which stands as a rare example of American organic modern architecture. Before his death in 1976, Wright began welcoming the public for guided walks and outdoor performances. The entity Manitoga, Inc., assumed oversight of the land and studio in 1984, and of the house in 2001. For nearly 20 years, it has pursued a comprehensive program of architectural restoration, site master planning, and interpretation.
M/RWDC now seeks lead support for a permanent design gallery devoted to long-term installations of the Russel Wright wares that were his primary achievement and instrumental to an American embrace of modern design for the home beginning in the late 1930s. Former bedrooms-turned-offices would be transformed into a 400 square foot, state-of-the-art exhibition space, connected to the principal interpreted rooms of the house and to a terrace with views of the quarry pool and woodland. Conceived as the culmination of the visitor experience, the design gallery would offer rotating displays from the permanent collection of over 2,500 examples of Wright-designed dinnerware, serving accessories, textiles, and furniture. It would be the only permanent, in-depth public exhibition of Wright’s industrial design work.
The Wrights espoused an egalitarian ideal of high-quality, modern design for all, promoting the notion of “easier living” through home wares that were elegant but efficient and affordable; and that blended nature-inspired and hand-shaped forms with new materials and mass-production. Beginning with spun aluminum and wooden housewares, they continued to develop a biomorphic formal aesthetic in successive lines of mix-and-match dinnerware, including Wright’s iconic 1939 American Modern line. Wright’s postwar work demonstrates the influence of several trips to Japan and Vietnam on behalf of the U.S. State Department to discover and encourage local handcrafts and their production for Western markets. Plants and flowers from Manitoga appear as drawn or stamped designs in his later lines. With Mary Wright leading the marketing effort, they disseminated their designs and ideas through exhibitions, books, advertisements, interviews and department store displays.
The proposed gallery space is the result of the relocation of administrative and collection servicing spaces to an offsite building, allowing for the dedication of the entire site to interpretation. The gallery would be key to the interpretation of the kitchen/dining area, where Wright’s groundbreaking design legacy for the modern American home is most evident. In addition to deepening the visitor experience, the permanent design gallery will enhance M/RWDC’s opportunities for academic partnerships in product design and industrial design history. Plans for the permanent design gallery have already inspired significant gifts from leading Wright collectors across the country: the estate of noted design collector and philanthropist George R. Kravis II has donated over 450 Wright objects; and a second gift of over 1,500 works will be finalized this year.
The project will be developed by Allison Cross, executive director; Donald Albrecht, curator and Russel Wright specialist; Wendy Evans Joseph, exhibition designer; and project architect James Hartford. Grant funds would support architect fees, lighting, casework, didactics and installation costs.
