Exhibit space will be run by Invent Now, offers free admission
Invent Now, Inc. (formerly the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc.) is pleased to announce the opening of the Invent Now Museum, located adjacent to the National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) School…Center for STEM Learning in Akron, Ohio.
The gallery at the corner of University and Broadway features a 2,000 square foot space that will showcase exhibits focused on invention and that will serve as a resource for students at the NIHF School. The Museum will be free to the public through a generous grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The Museum’s first exhibit, The Art of Invention, highlights works of art that have serendipitously emerged from inventions, patents and trademarks. Visitors can find beauty in elegantly designed inventions and enjoy the unintended art that results from other inventions, whether it’s admiring the sleek look of cleverly crafted dinnerware or taking a fantastical glimpse into the microscopic world. Many of the stories are about Inductees in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, such as Edwin Land who created the Polaroid one-step camera, Harold Edgerton who pioneered stroboscopic photography, and Edith Flanigen who invented a process for creating artificial emeralds.
The exhibit allows visitors to see samples of Favrile glass, the colored art glass invented by Inductee Louis Tiffany. Several pieces are on loan from the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass at the Queens Museum of Art. And, although the Bakelite plastic invented by Inductee Leo Baekeland was ideal as an electrical insulator, it also found many decorative uses in items like jewelry and hair accessories. The Bakelite items on display are on loan from the Summit County Historical Society. The inventive and appealing work of many designers can also be seen, such as Viktor Schreckengost’s bicycle lamps designed for the Murray Bicycle company, Raymond Loewy’s stylish Studebaker Avanti, and Henry Dreyfuss’s classic Big Ben alarm clock.
The Invent Now Museum is located at 221 South Broadway and will be open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed weekends and holidays. A retail counter will provide innovative products and apparel and will also serve as the store for the NIHF School. For more information about the Museum, call 234-678-6692.
