International Visitors Programme
Cynthia E Smith, serves as Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's Curator of Socially Responsible Design. She is researching the ways in which design might address the root causes of conflict and facilitate reconciliation to establish a sustained peace. To broaden and deepen her research, Cynthia met with various designers, theoreticians, architects, urban planners, curators and other professionals from the field of art, design, architecture and international politics while visiting the Netherlands in September.
Trained as an industrial designer, Smith joined New York-based Cooper Hewitt after earning a graduate degree at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she integrates her work experience with her advocacy on human rights and social justice issues. Smith curates the museum's humanitarian design exhibition series, serves on numerous international design juries and lectures widely on socially responsible design.