This exhibition completes a multi-site presentation of World’s Fairs as a unique phenomenon in American city making.
World's Fair: Impetus for Social Infrastructure
Exhibition Dates: November 7, 2023 – February 24, 2024
Goldstein Gallery in McNeal Hall
This exhibition completes a multi-site presentation of World’s Fairs as a unique phenomenon in American city making. The first installation (in HGA Gallery, Rapson Hall) explored World’s Fairs as platforms for experimentation and innovation in architecture and urban planning. This installation extends that view, investigating the profound and lasting impact of these events.
Of particular focus here is the role of World’s Fairs in shaping social infrastructure – the spaces and services that support connections in communities. This is a critical and previously under-researched legacy of these expositions.
Nine cities across the United States are presented as multimedia case studies. Original models, diagrams, and video compilations illustrate the development of fairgrounds into parks, university campuses, and essential public space.
This reframing of World’s Fairs from one-off events to agents of urban experience provides important historical context as we look ahead. How might such events continue to shape our cities today and in the future? The contributions asserted here remind us to consider how the built environment impacts people as well as places.
Learn More About the History of World's Fairs
Credits
Curator: Dingliang Yang, Assistant Professor of Architecture in the College of Design and Board Member of Minnesota USA Expo 2027 and 2031.
Curation and Production Team: Beau Gaulin, Duncan Seltzer, Sydney Kramer, Julian Whitman, Timothy Follett-Dion
Exhibition Advisors: Thomas Fisher, Jennifer Yoos
Exhibition Coordinators: Aidan O’Connor, Jean McElvain
Fabrication Supporters: Molly Sanford, Anne Henly, Justin Kindelspire, Nat Kim
Supporting Organizations: College of Design, University of Minnesota; Minnesota Design Center; University of Minnesota Imagine Fund
