The Nature Conservancy and the Smithsonian’s
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum hosted
an exclusive preview reception celebrating the
premiere of an extraordinary exhibition, “Design
for a Living World”, a traveling exhibition
featuring objects created by ten visionary
designers and made from sustainable, natural
materials on Wednesday May 13, 2009 at 6:30 pm,
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2 East 91st
Street at 5th Avenue, New York City.
The Nature Conservancy collaborated with
prominent designers from the worlds of fashion,
industrial and furniture design. Each designer
focused on a natural material from a specific
place where the Conservancy works to create
beautiful, sustainable objects of art and
design. The exhibition features designs by
Yves Béhar, Stephen Burks, Hella Jongerius, Maya
Lin, Christien Meindertsma, Abbott Miller, Isaac
Mizrahi, Ted Muehling, Paulina Reyes for
Kate Spade and Ezri Tarazi. Among the
creations featured in the exhibition are
fashions by Mizrahi utilizing salmon leather;
precious jewels by Ted Muehling made with farmed
black pearls and vegetable “ivory” and Paulina
Reyes innovative handbags made with sustainable
woods, cotton and jipijapa,
a fiber made of palm leaves.
For more information please visit