The Local Look: Chicago Design Museum’s Tanner Woodford
CIW’s Local Look invites local entrepreneurs, social pioneers and artists to share their projects and insights. Tanner Woodford is the Executive Director of the Chicago Design Museum, a resource for the Chicago design community and beyond that strives to unite, inform and inspire. The Chicago Design Museum began as the Phoenix Design Museum in 2011, welcoming about 750 visitors to an exhibition in the historic Phoenix Seed & Feed Capitol Warehouse. Since moving to Chicago in 2012, the museum has only grown in audience and scope, welcoming around 1,500 at its 2012 exhibit in Humboldt Park and 3,200 just one year later after moving to Block 37. 2014, in Woodford’s words, will be a “transformative year” for the museum as it continues to celebrate and share design excellence.
 |
| Photo credit: Jason Ackley. Photo courtesy of Tanner Woodford. |
Why did you choose Chicago?
Chicago hosts a design community that thrives on collaboration, transparency and connectedness. Excited by these ideas, creating open access to information and celebrating design excellence, I find myself constantly surrounded by like-minded individuals that value and share our ethos. To give you a bit of context, 230 people from our community have volunteered their time and energy in support of ChiDM over the past three years. This high-level of interaction with the community constantly informs and shapes my way of thinking about the organization and provides me with an endless supply of energy. Working democratically, we will continue to break down silos, provide the community a stronger platform and create neutral ground in which to engage with one another.
To be more direct, I can’t imagine a better place in which to open the design museum. Chicago is perfect for us.
If you could go back in time before you started this project and share one piece of advice with yourself, what would you tell yourself?
A few months ago, I bought the guts of an old marquee sign on eBay and hung it in my kitchen. Since then, I’ve been collecting and displaying influential ideas, suggestions and lessons from all cultural aspects of my daily life—lectures, articles, books and music. Often, I find myself confronting ideas that would otherwise become buried in my subconscious. I wish I’d come across many of them before opening a small business. In order of character count, the lessons I’ve collected include:
We judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions.
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.
Be willing to engage in uncertainty.
Caring for yourself is not selfish.
Happiness is always within reach.
Everything will be all right.
There is always a choice.
Be full of love.
Learn by doing.
Forget safety.
What are your next steps?
The last two years have been incredible—inspiring and life-changing. A dream has evolved into a vision, which fervently transformed into an amorphous, nimble and brave organization. Hundreds of people have volunteered thousands of hours—poring over details, making connections and changing the way we perceive institutionalized museums. Tens of thousands of dollars have been donated and carefully allocated, funding the evolution of this idea. Born out of passion, and realized on nights and weekends, the museum has quickly grown into something bigger than anything I could’ve anticipated.
And, this is just the beginning.
This spring, we intend to make a couple of big announcements about the future of the Chicago Design Museum. We can’t make any specific announcements just yet, but we share up-to-the-minute information via our mailing list and on Twitter at @ChiDM.
We want to be in the know! Name one person, place or thing that you think is one of Chicago’s best-kept secrets—a secret until now, of course.
Weegee’s Lounge in Logan Square is one of the best spots to go when you’re looking for a little romance. Last time I went, I fell in love. It’s dangerous.
Q & As are edited for clarity and length.
