Beyond Category: The Musical Genius of Duke Ellington
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, DC
MDA won the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions Service’s design competition for this exhibit highlighting the National Museum of American History’s Ellington collection. MDA’s design model was instrumental in a grant award of $7,000,000 from the Lila Wallace Foundation. In 1993, Beyond Category was nominated by the Smithsonian for Best Exhibition. The exhibit traveled to 12 sites over a three year period, including Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics and the Jazz Hall of Fame in Kansas City.
The design focused on theatrical sets evocative of influential cultural environments in Ellington’s life: Holliday’s Pool Hall, the Howard Theater, Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, Harlem and the Cotton Club. The exhibit included an award-winning video on Duke’s musical philosophy and touch-screen interactive programs allowing visitors to meet and hear Ellington’s instrument: the members of his orchestra. MDA was responsible for all aspects of design, bidding, and the supervision of fabrication and installation.
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