Wednesday, October 7, 2026
6:00 to 8:00 pm
1610 S. 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19148
This event is free, but advance RSVP is required
As part of the DesignPhilly 2026 festival, join us for an exciting evening of art and design. Meet R & Company co-founder, artistic director and Philadelphia native Evan Snyderman, who will share his insights about the city's important role in the world of craft and design, and offer a behind the scenes look at OBJECTS: USA, the design triennial currently in planning for 2027 ~
This unique collaborative event was brought to life through Philadelphia connections. Not
only is it Snyderman’s hometown, but the gallery also represents one of Philly’s most
relevant contemporary artists - Roberto Lugo. His most recent commission for the Madison Square Park Conservancy combined the forces of both R & Company and the Johnson Atelier to create several monumental enlargements, and Lugo’s largest public art exhibition to date.
This synergy led Dina Wind Art Foundation President John Wind (a board member at the Atelier’s parent organization, Grounds for Sculpture) to reach out to both institutions to organize this event, with the intention of letting the Philly design community know about the work going on behind the scenes at these dynamic institutions. We hope you will join us for this unique opportunity to hear from these experts in design and fabrication.
ABOUT OBJECTS: USA
In 1969, a groundbreaking survey of American crafts titled Objects: USA opened at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., before traveling to venues across the country and abroad. Uniting an impressive range of established and emerging artists who developed new approaches to object-making, the event cemented a boundary-blurring movement that continues to influence contemporary practices today. Despite its timely impact, however, the worlds of art, craft, and design once again stratified in the decades that followed.
Since its founding in 1997, R & Company has spearheaded a new approach to collecting objects, helping to once again dismantle the barriers that separated designers, craftspeople, and fine artists. Questioning where these fields converge today and the potential of the handmade object, the gallery launched Objects: USA 2020, honoring the original exhibition and bringing it into the present. The show has become a triennial, with its second edition in 2024, and the third iteration for 2027 currently under development. The next edition will examine whether we have reached a point of true post-disciplinarity in the arts and posit that objects are not passive things but rather active participants in culture. Within this fluid landscape, more makers are pushing the limits of material, form, technique, and scale, creating work that redefines even the distinction between object and space.
