Gallery with many people looking at textiles hanging on the walls.

AboutCollections and Galleries

The human experience is everything we touch-and everything that touches us. The way we connect with each other has a powerful effect on the quality of life.

CDMC Conversation Series - nibiiwakamigkwe art

Center for Design and Material Culture

The Center for Design and Material Culture promotes learning, exploration, outreach, and community engagement related to design and material culture through stewardship and administration. Using designed objects as primary sources for research and exhibitions, we invite faculty, students and the community-at-large to explore art, design, and the built environment within the context of society and the natural environment.

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Lace handkerchief, Unknown artist, Europe, 1870-1929. Gift from the Estate of Helen Louise Allen.

Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection

The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection is one of the nation’s largest university-held textile collections with over 13,000 textile artifacts spanning 16 centuries and 108 countries.

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View of the

Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery

The Lynn Mecklenburg Textile Gallery provides a space dedicated to rotating exhibitions of the School of Human Ecology’s Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection.

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front of jacket

Ruth Davis Design Gallery

The Ruth Davis Design Gallery is an exhibition space focused on the processes and results of design.

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