Upcoming IMoDD Events

What’s Happening at IMoDD:

Unforgettable Dinnerware Zoom Lecture Series

The International Museum of Dinnerware Design’s Unforgettable Dinnerware on-line lecture series includes tours of private collections and artist studios, allows one to meet directly with dinnerware designers and contemporary artists, and shares presentations by researchers and authors on major dinnerware manufacturers, including Mid-Century Modern dinnerware. These conversations are presented via Zoom. Our Fall 2025 IMoDD Zoom series began in September 2025 and continues on the second Wednesday of each month through December.  The Unforgettable Dinnerware series is generously supported by Illiana van Metteren.

Did you miss any of our Unforgettable Dinnerware lectures? They are available to view on line!  Videos of all of our Unforgettable Dinnerware lectures are available as YouTubes through our IMoDD-Videos Page.

Blooks: the Quirky World of Culinary Objects in Book Form, From the Collection of and Presented by Mindell Dubansky

part of the IMoDD Unforgettable Dinnerware lecture series, generously supported by Illiana van Meeteren

May 13, 2026, 6:30 pm, Eastern

You can register for the free virtual presentation HERE and we will send you a link the day of the event.

This talk focuses on the history and variety of food and dining-related objects that emulate actual books, a sub-group of Mindell’s vast teaching collection of book-shaped objects. Though the history of book objects is an ancient one, those associated with comestibles and the culinary arts have been popular since the 16th century. Here, Mindell shares a diverse sampling from her collection, made during the 19th through 20th centuries, including both precious, rare and kitschy items such as tea and recipe boxes, ephemeral packaging, maple sugar and iced cream molds, lunch boxes, recipe boxes, napkin rings and more.    

Mindell Dubansky is the supervising book conservator and preservation librarian at Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dubansky’ s personal collection of blooks (things that look like books, but aren’t) and her groundbreaking research on the subject have been previously featured in exhibitions at the Grolier Club and Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Center for Book Arts, and in publications including The New York Times, and on television, on CBS’ Sunday Morning. Dubansky’s publications include the exhibition catalogs The Best Kept Secret. 200 Years of Blooks; Emulating Books. Book Objects from The Lynn and Bruce Heckman Gift (Watson Library); and Remember Me: American Carved Stone Books from the lan Berke Collection; and the monographs, Pattern and Flow: A Golden Age of American Decorated Paper; Blooks. The Art of Books That Aren’t; and The Proper Decoration of Book Covers: The Life and Work of Alice C. Morse.  

To facilitate research in the study of book objects, Dubansky has established the Blook Institute, a series of activities designed to promote the study of book objects, and their relation to book history, the book arts, material culture, and art history.

New IMoDD Video:

Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 6:30 PM Eastern time

Material Curiosity by Design: Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman

part of the IMoDD Unforgettable Dinnerware lecture series, generously supported by Illiana van Meeteren

Presented by Laura Ackerman-Shaw 

Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman helped create the distinct design language and aesthetic of California mid-century modernism. Their six-decade personal and professional partnership produced a wide ranging body of work across media including ceramics, textiles, mosaics, wood, and metal that bridged their fine art and studio craft training. The Ackermans’ sophisticated yet approachable designs, rooted in craftsmanship, helped bring modernism into everyday life. Celebrated for their vibrant contributions to postwar design that brought warmth to mid-century interiors, their work was favored by leading architects and designers of the time. Their daughter Laura will examine the Ackermans’ prolific career, material exploration, design process, and continuing impact. Exhibited internationally and held in major museum collections including the Smithsonian and LACMA, the Ackermans are being celebrated with “Material Curiosity by Design” at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles through May 10, 2026.

Join the International Museum of Dinnerware Design for an intimate and fascinating exploration of the Ackermans’ personal story and iconic designs, presented by Evelyn and Jerome’s daughter, Laura Ackerman-Shaw.

Laura Ackerman-Shaw, Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman’s daughter, received a BA and MA in English literature with honors from Stanford University. After more than 35 years in publishing as a director of design, editorial, production, and translations, she established Ackerman Modern. Laura stewards her parents’ design legacy through exhibitions, collections, programs, publications, and licensing. She has presented widely, including Modernism Week and Docomomo, lectured at universities, and interviewed for podcasts. She has a design collaboration with CB2 and serves on a Manitoga/Russell Wright Design Center committee. Laura has written widely including Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman: California Mid-Century Designers. She established the Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman Endowed Scholarship at Wayne State University and the Jerome Ackerman Endowed Internship at the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum for undergraduate art students. Born in Los Angeles, Laura resides in the Bay Area.

New Exhibition:

Ashtray

February 7 – June 29, 2026

Click here for more about ASHTRAY

Dining Grails

This ongoing exhibition includes fabulously designed objects by leading designers for industry as well as masterpieces by contemporary artists in the tabletop genre such as Eva Zeisel, Russel Wright, Roy Lichtenstein, Eddie Dominguez and Pop-up book illustrator Robert Sabuda.

Click here for more about Dining Grails

New IMoDD Videos:

March 11, 2026, 6:30 pm Eastern time

Ashtrays the Wright Way!

Every design tells a story: the ashtrays of Russel and Mary Wright.

Presented by Scott Vermillion and Annie Wright

part of the IMoDD Unforgettable Dinnerware lecture series

Russel and Mary Wright, the pioneering husband-and-wife design team behind the iconic American Modern dinnerware and the 1950 book Guide to Easier Living, transformed mid-century modern life with stylish, affordable, and highly functional housewares for everyday use. Beyond these famous works, they created many other products—including numerous distinctive ashtrays. Join the International Museum of Dinnerware Design for a fascinating conversation about the Wrights’ ashtray designs and related stories, featuring Annie Wright—Russel and Mary’s daughter—in discussion with collector and historian Scott Vermillion.

Scott Vermillion has enjoyed a 40+ year career in industrial and graphic design and holds a BS from the Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design. A lifelong collector and historian of American pottery, dinnerware and decorative arts, Mr. Vermillion has co-written several books on the subject. He is the Facebook administrator for multiple Art Deco and Mid-Century dinnerware groups and, for many years, served as co-editor of the Eva Zeisel Forum newsletter. He lives in Chicago, Illinois, with his husband, Scott.

Annie Wright, Russel and Mary Wright’s daughter, protects and promotes the legacy of her parents—two of the most prominent and successful designers of the 20th century. She is a co-founder of Manitoga: The Russel Wright Design Center in Garrison, New York. A nutritionist by profession, Annie co-wrote Russel Wright’s Menu Cookbook: A Guide to Easier Entertaining in 2003. She resides in New York State.

February 11, 2026 at 6:30 PM Eastern time

The Ubiquitous Ashtray

Presented by Margaret Carney

part of the IMoDD Unforgettable Dinnerware lecture series

The Ubiquitous Ashtray  will focus on the latest curated exhibition at the International Museum of Dinnerware Design, Ashtray, which opens on February 7 and 8 in Kingston, New York. When the museum was established in 2012, it was only logical to have ashtrays in the collection of dinnerware. Carney, who grew up in a household where both parents were heavy smokers, knew the placement of ashtrays at both ends of the dining table. This presentation will share the hi-lights (pun intended) of the Ashtray exhibition, with all its peaks and valleys. 

Margaret Carney is a ceramic historian with a Ph.D. in Asian art history. She’s held the role of curator and director at a number of museums for decades. Her knowledge about the topic of ashtrays comes largely from inhaling secondhand smoke. Those who know her, see her as a person obsessed with food, including marzipan and vegetarian reubens. Contrary to popular belief, she is not known as a gracious hostess or a party-goer. And perhaps she over-shares.

Dorothy Wilson Perkins Lecture at Alfred University presented by IMoDD Director Margaret Carney: Binns @ Alfred: n degrees of separation

September 16, 2025 4:30 p.m., Nevins Theater, Powell Campus Center Alfred University Campus, Alfred, New York.

More about Binns @ Alfred: n degrees of separation with link to video

Current Exhibitions:

Dining Grails

This exhibition includes fabulously designed objects by leading designers for industry as well as masterpieces by contemporary artists in the tabletop genre such as Eva Zeisel, Russel Wright, Roy Lichtenstein, Eddie Dominguez and Pop-up book illustrator Robert Sabuda.

Link to: Dining Grails exhibition page

Dorothy Wilson Perkins Lecture at Alfred University presented by IMoDD Director Margaret Carney

September 16, 2025 4:30 p.m., Nevins Theater, Powell Campus Center Alfred University Campus, Alfred, New York

Margaret Carney presented a lecture on the legacy of Charles Fergus Binns titled “Binns@Alfred: n degrees of separation.” The lecture is given in support of the exhibition “History: A Legacy in Motion – Alfred Ceramic Art 1900 – 2025” at the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum. The exhibition presents the extraordinarily diverse practices of artists who held (or continue to hold) full time teaching positions at the New York State College of Ceramics School of Art and Design since its creation by Binns in 1900. 

The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum established the Dorothy Wilson Perkins Ceramic History Lecture Series in 1998, thanks to a generous endowment to the Museum by Dr. Lyle Perkins in memory of his wife, Dr. Dorothy Wilson Perkins. Since then the series has brought in exceptional speakers discussing a wide range of topics relating to ceramic history, culture and contemporary practice.

https://ceramicsmuseum.alfred.edu/perkins-lecture-series/carney/index.html

The International Museum of Dinnerware Design
Members Preview Party

524 Broadway, Kingston, NY
Saturday, October 26, 2024, 4:30 to 7:30 pm.

IMoDD invited museum members and honored guests to a celebration to preview our inaugural exhibitions in advance of the formal opening of the museum on November 2.