Edited by Monica Obniski, Demmer Curator of 20th and 21st Century Design, Milwaukee Art Museum; and Darrin Alfred, Curator of Architecture, Design and Graphics, Denver Art Museum.

Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America explores the projects of over 40 designers who advocated for playfulness and whimsy within their creations for corporations, domestic interiors, and children. The exhibition presents play as a serious form of inspiration, experimentation, and problem solving. In midcentury America, such playful design occurred against the backdrop of a booming consumer market and as a counterbalance to Cold War–era anxiety. Furniture, toys, textiles, films, posters, ceramics are among the objects featured.

Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America is co-organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Denver Art Museum. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Hardcover, 256 pages with 153 color and 51 black-and-white illustrations.

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