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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

2011

  • Work on this object began.

2013

  • Work on this object ended.

2016

2025

  • You found it!

OPEN HOUSE

This is a Project. It was designed by Matthew Mazzotta and collaborator: Coleman Center for the Arts. It is dated 2011–13.

When designer Matthew Mazzotta asked the people of York, Alabama, for their ideas and hopes for the town, they extolled the strength of their community and lamented the lack of racially integrated and secular social spaces and the proliferation of blighted properties. The OPEN HOUSE project transforms one of the town’s most visible abandoned houses into an open-air theater that seats 100 people, creating a new type of town square for local discourse and activities.

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This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition By the People: Designing a Better America.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/420777965/ |title=OPEN HOUSE |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>