Recently, two articles have appeared in designobserver which – with totally different perspectives (that of a curator and that of a critic and visitor) – look through two renown New York institutions (MoMA and Cooper Hewitt), raising thoughtful reflections on the role and use of contemporary design museums.

The first article is by Barry Bergdoll, Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art: The Art of Advocacy: The Museum as Design Laboratory .

The second article is by Alexandra Lange, a critic, journalist and architectural historian who teaches architecture criticism in the D-Crit Program at SVA, NY: What the Cooper-Hewitt Needs: More Design, Less Talk. Here comments are worthy of being read as much as the text by the Author.