In conjunction with the exhibition Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity at The Museum of Modern Art, a series of fun design/craft workshops is being offered. When I saw that designer/D.I.Y. guru Ellen Lupton would show participants how to create a tote bag in the Bauhaus style, I was in.

Lupton, a designer/writer/curator/educator who has written the book on D.I.Y. (D.I.Y. Design It Yourself, from Princeton Architectural Press) has had a lot to do with bringing a variety of design disciplines to public consciousness. As curator of contemporary design at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, she urges everyone to Design Your Own Life, with an irreverent and realistic view of the mass produced stuff we surround ourselves with. Her blog covers a dizzying array of subjects from how to write a book proposal to graphic design in contemporary culture.

Left and right: Work in progress. Center: A Moholy-Nagy-esque view of the education department atrium. Photos: Peggy Roalf

Today at MoMA I joined 17 other likeminded adults and 2 children to design and create a canvas bag. Lupton first showed some printouts of work from the exhibition that could be used for reference in creating our art. She then dispelled the most common misconception about Bauhaus design: that it was hard-edged and machine made, two characteristics that seemed at odds with the hands on crafty stuff laid out on the tables. "No," she said, "if you look closely at the art in the show, you will see that it's all done by hand." After giving a few more pointers on materials and process, she turned us loose for what was now a 45-minute work session.

It was clear that down and dirty was the only way to get this done, so I made a couple of quick pencil sketches and got cracking. I decided to take a Moholy-Nagy-channeled-through-Kandinsky approach and created a design for a thus far imaginary company called Rabbit Hole Books (photo above, right).

Most of the participants had clearly seen and embraced the art on exhibit, with several of them making faithful adaptations of designs by Herbert Bayer, Kurt Schwitters and Johannes Itten. One man who had to be a graphic designer, came armed with a set of stencils that he used to create a stunning overall typographic design (photo above, left). Amazingly, almost everybody was able to leave with a finished product, although most of us left our bags in a classroom to let the paint dry while we looked at some more art upstairs.

Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity continues through January 25, 2010. As of today, the remaining BauhausLab programs are sold out, but there are many other programs, gallery tours and a symposium on the legacy of the Bauhaus. Please visit the website for information. The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53^rd Street, New York, NY. Click for hours and information.

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