A ‘Palace of Wonders’: Inside the soon-to-reopen Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building

2021-10-20T18:52:00-04:00

For the last 17 years, “this gorgeous piece of architecture” has “sat shrouded in mystery” in the middle of the National Mall, said Ms. Goslins, invoking the metaphor of Sleeping Beauty.

Similar to other formerly dormant cultural institutions, the reopening of the 140-year-old Arts and Industries Building will coincide with an exhibition titled FUTURES. The show goes on view November 20th and will feature a hodgepodge of art, architecture, and technology like the Virgin Hyperloop train and Bjarke Ingels’ Oceanix utopia.

The AIB's latest installation was designed by the Rockwell Group and will close its doors for the second time to make room for interior renovations that will commence once the exhibition ends in July of next year.

“The conversation that we have right now as a country about the future is pretty dysfunctional,” director Rachel Goslins told the Times. “It is mostly ‘here are all the things you should be afraid of because that’s what gets the clicks or what’s sexy.’ We have so much help imagining what could go wrong, but we don’t have that much help imagining what could go right.”

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A ‘Palace of Wonders’: Inside the soon-to-reopen Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building