![Mcquaid Matilda Aif2019](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/c535901b-e991-4364-b59a-0085aad48129/McQuaid_Matilda_AIF2019.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=207%2C59%2C843%2C846&w=290)
Matilda McQuaid is deputy director of curatorial and head of textiles at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. She recently co-curated Nature: Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, an exhibition about how designers are transforming our relationship with the natural world through multidisciplinary partnerships, and led a collection-digitization project with over 200,000 objects photographed and made available online. In her 17 years at Cooper Hewitt, McQuaid has organized acclaimed exhibitions and publications including Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance and Scraps: Fashion, Textiles, and Creative Reuse. Formerly at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) for 15 years, she is also an author and editor on art, architecture, and design.
Previously
![Restorative Design: Mending Humanity’s Relationship with Nature](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null4071aef4-3c8d-4062-b637-a27b61b0501e/restorative_design_aif19.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C2560%2C1439&w=400)
The threads that connect humans to their natural environments have frayed, and some have completely severed. In an attempt to mend those we still can, designers are forging me...