Visiting a design museum is a great way to immerse yourself into the art and design community. This is important because it will make your own designs more rich and full of meaning, with you new and expanded knowledge of design history and culture. Traveling to these museums will give you a great idea of what has been done already and can inspire you to create new and original artwork, that could be in that very same design museum one day!
There are so many design and art museums around the world its hard to pick favorites, but based on my experience and location these are 10 I recommend visiting if you are in the United States. We will be sure to post more design museum top lists soon including an international list, and a list of fine art museums which are great to visit as well. List your favorite museums in the comments!
Design Museum Top 15 List
- The Museum of Modern Art
- Architecture & Design Museum
- The Museum of Contemporary Art
- Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
- Museum of Arts & Design
- Museum of Contemporary Art
- Guggenheim Museum
- The Wolfsonian
- Denver Museum of Nature & Science
- Museum of Contemporary Art
- The Museum of Photographic Arts
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- Zeum: Arts & Technology Museum for Kids and Families
- San Francisco Museum of Craft & Design
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Thanks for pointing these out. I’ve only been to a handful of these museums, but hopefully someday I will get to them all. The last time i had been the to Guggenheim, I thought it was fantastic, so that is one that I back up a lot.
I really like all museums for inspiration on design. The shame is I don’t have one close by so I have to plan and take a day or two to visit. I have been to the tate modern now a few times and always come away feeling inspired and with a renewed creativity.
Thanks for these recommendations. Making a visit to the States soon and will try and get to see as many of these as possible.
Using museums to renew my on creativity is a great idea. The tate modern always has the ability to get me re-excited about design, and scrambling for a pencil and scrap of paper to jot down my ideas quick!
Philadelphia Museum of Art has a great Modern and Contemporary wing … and many changing exhibitions to find inspiration!
Graphic Design Museum, Breda The Netherlands!