 Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Our program is about to begin. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Smithsonian's Acting Provost and Undersecretary for Museums and Research, Richard Curin. That's a New Yorker talking. Good evening and welcome to the 17th National Design Awards. I'm delighted, yes. I'm delighted to be in New York to celebrate with all of you in Cooper U.S. spectacular Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden. Isn't this a fantastic place to set up? Now the National Design Awards honor high and lasting achievement in American design and bring global attention to design's contributions to the betterment of our world. Something we sorely need today. Recognizing designs, creative leaders, expanding access to the museum's rich and diverse collection, and advancing public understanding of design, Cooper U.S. is opening up doors for all who are eager to learn here in New York, around the country, and across the planet. So first, a big round of applause and congratulations to tonight's National Design Award winners. The Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of the United States, is honored to recognize your important achievements. I see in your work a reflection of design's remarkable empathy for the needs of a diverse and interrelated humanity. You, as designers, inspire us to think boldly about the future and take positive action to turn vision into reality. Many thanks also tonight to all of those of you who support Cooper U.S. and the National Design Awards program. I especially want to thank First Lady Michelle Obama. The First Lady has held the National Design Awards in her heart over her tenure over the past eight years. And she has been and continues to be the honorary patron of the National Design Awards. So we thank her for her valued service to the Cooper U.S. and also to the Smithsonian community. As some of you may have seen on TV or read in the papers, this has been a historic season for the Smithsonian with the recent opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall in Washington. It comes at such an important time when that museum, teaching about tolerance, about appreciation, about understanding, about respect for diversity in our country, has become all the more important beyond what we ever thought when we started building that museum. And the First Lady and President Obama have been valued important supporters of that museum and our entire Smithsonian family. I want to express a sincere thanks as well to Cooper U.S. tremendously hard-working board. I know this board well, very well. And they work incredibly hard for the good of this museum and the people it serves. And of course, to the staff, about the hardest-working staff at the Smithsonian that really, that believes so strongly every day what it's doing to make our country better. This year, this museum broke a historic record in attendance, its exhibitions and programs drawing throngs of visitors from around the city and around the world. They learned a lot about design. And most of our visitors left here incredibly inspired. And some of those visitors, no doubt, will become great designers in the future. And they will sit where you are sitting. And some of them will end up winning National Design Awards. So bravo, congratulations for a museum and a mission that continues to serve our nation. And now it's my great pleasure to introduce Cooper U.S. Accomplish and Dynamic Director. The fiction at the Smithsonian is I'm her boss. But that, as Barbara and members of the board and the staff knows, that is absolutely not true. It seems like it's the un-array around. Please, an enormous welcome for a dynamic leader, Caroline Bowman. Thank you, Richard, for that inspiring introduction. Hello, everyone. Welcome and welcome home to Cooper Hewitt. As you can see, we are overjoyed to once again celebrate the National Design Awards in the museum's truly spectacular Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden. Seven years ago, construction trailers were moved into the garden so we could begin Cooper Hewitt's transformation. After a redesign that celebrates its history and its community, the garden is now a public asset and treasure. Dynamic and activated with design installations, performance, ping-pong, and events like tonight. It's a verdant and vibrant pathway into design that leads people directly to the museum. Please do help us extend that pathway beyond the museum's campus by sharing our celebration this evening on social media. Now, I have a little sniffle. Please don't share that on social media. And use our hashtag, and I promise to like every one of your posts. And yes, it's OK to use your phones while I'm talking. No worries. A very special thank you to First Lady Michelle Obama, who has graciously served as our honorary patron for the last eight years. Mrs. Obama is an exceptional friend to the design community and to Cooper Hewitt. And we look forward to working with her well beyond Pennsylvania Avenue. Cooper Hewitt educates, inspires, and empowers people through design. We do this through exhibitions that advance public understanding of design's impact, education programs that inject design thinking into classrooms nationwide, and interactive technologies that inspire people to jump in, participate, and create like designers. I hope that all of you pulled away from the cocktail reception tonight to enjoy the galleries and see the awe-inspiring design currently on view. From the opulence of NDA winner Tom Brown's selects to the ravishing reuse of textiles and scraps to the inspiring design stories in By the People to name just a few of our special exhibitions, The Magnificent Diversity and Range of Design discovered here defines the Cooper Hewitt experience. All of this would not be possible without the steadfast support and enormous enthusiasm of our Board of Trustees, as well as the generosity of hundreds of friends, including all of you. So thank you all so much for joining us this evening at the Nations Design Museum. And a heartfelt thank you to my dear friend and collaborator Barbara Mandel, Chair of Cooper Hewitt's Board of Trustees. Barbara is an extraordinary leader who has done wonders for Cooper Hewitt through her years of service. A transformative gift from the Morton and Barbara Mandel Family Foundation realized the museum's digitization of its permanent collection in just 18 months and unheard of achievement in the museum world. 200,000, yes, 200,000 design objects spanning 30 centuries are now online and accessible, making Cooper Hewitt an incredible resource for design enthusiasts across the globe. Another first. Just last month, Cooper Hewitt represented the United States at the inaugural London Design Biennale. 37 nations came together to present an outstanding exhibition of ideas and ingenuity in the historic setting of the Somerset House. We decided to replicate Cooper Hewitt's ever-popular immersion room on a global stage and take our innovative technologies on the road and across the pond for the very first time. We had thousands of excited visitors enjoying the pen and its power to collect objects from all of the installations. A sincere thanks to Secretary David Scorton, who is forging ahead with quite an exciting global vision for the Smithsonian and who helped make this possible with the Smithsonian National Board. And we can't thank Bloomberg Philanthropies enough for being with us from the very start. So stay tuned for many more international Cooper Hewitt collaborations. Now back on campus, Cooper Hewitt is a hub of design inspiration every day, but especially during National Design Week, which started on Saturday with our hands-on design kickoff with more than 1,500 visitors engaging with NDA winners in free workshops. An immense thanks to Michael Francis, who jumped at the chance to make National Design Week a reality. Yes, now 11 years ago, but never too many years gone by to thank him again for the immeasurable impact of this week-long celebration of design. I love this image of proud teenagers exhibiting their creations with opening ceremonies, Carol Lim. And I don't know, but I'm imagining that this Kenzo dress took a little bit longer to construct. What do you think? Thank you, Kenzo. On Tuesday, our NDA winners mentored over 300 future designers at our Teen Design Fair. And later that evening, we held our very first winners' salon with in-depth design discussions happening all over campus between the NDA winners and design enthusiasts. An enormous thanks to our stellar winners for your participation all week long. You really inspire all of us. So thank you. And a gigantic thank you to everyone in the Cooper Hewitt staff who come together to make this all happen seamlessly and always with loads of enthusiasm. So thank you, Cooper Hewitt team. And thank you to our Gala leadership, who helped us to create this unforgettable evening. And a special thanks as well to David Stark and his design team for bringing the garden inside, right? And just wait until you see our dessert. I'll just leave it at that. Huge, huge thanks to Design Within Reach and Facebook for your continued commitment to and support of the National Design Awards. We couldn't do it without you. So thank you. Thank you also to Corning Museum of Glass for our stunning trophies that you'll see in just a moment. And I'm really happy to have Eric Meek, one of the glass blowers with us tonight. Lots of thanks. And thanks to Smithsonian Media for their media support. And finally, sincere thanks to Target. I'm incredibly excited to announce that just this past week, Target renewed their vital support of Cooper Hewitt's 19 design challenge. Yeah. And the winner of this year's challenge, 16-year-old Claire Christensen, is with us tonight. Her winning design for an outdoor chair will be installed in our garden as soon as the tent comes down. Claire, would you please stand up? That's right. There she is. Thank you to trustee Todd Waterbury for sharing in our excitement to launch a high school design challenge and with Target's embrace, make it happen. Thank you, Todd. Together, we are inspiring the next generation of designers and leaders. The Target and Cooper Hewitt teams have worked hand in hand for well over a dozen years to deliver our shared passion for design to the broadest and most diverse audiences possible. Since 1946, Target has generously given 5% of its profits to local communities. Today, that percentage equals more than $4 million a week. So thank you all. And I'll be back a little bit later this evening to begin our awards ceremony. Thank you and bon appetit.