Specials

Nike: Form Follows Motion on International Museum Day 
SPECIAL (DE/EN) 
Sunday | 18 May 2025 
From 10 am, Vitra Design Museum 

The exhibition »Nike: Form Follows Motion« is drawing to an end... Don't miss this wonderful chance to see the unique interplay of design, innovation, and motion before the show closes at the Vitra Design Museum. 

Highlights on International Museum Day: 
Ticket discounts for all visitors (13 Euro)
Every 100th visitor will receive an exclusive Nike poster as a special gift souvenir 
Drop-in Workshop »Design Your Textile Sneaker«: Drop into the Vitra Campus Gallery at any time between 11 am and 3 pm and create your own textile sneaker! 
(5 Euro material charge)

Open House Basel 2025 
SPECIAL (DE) 
Sunday | 25 May 2025 
From 11 am, Vitra Campus 

25 May 2025 is the great day! At Open House Basel, you can explore the city's fabulous architecture when one hundred buildings and more open their doors to visitors. Come inside and discover exciting spaces and outstanding interior designs. 

At the Vitra Design Museum, Álvaro Siza's listed production building (now housing the DHBW Lörrach's architecture programme) will be open for view. You can also come behind the scenes at the Vitra Schaudepot for a peek into the Vitra Design Museum Office. 

Tours meet on the piazza in front of Vitra Schaudepot/Depot Deli 

Álvaro-Siza-Halle DHBW 

Sun 25 May 11–11.30 am (20 tickets) 
Sun 25 May 1–1.30 pm (20 tickets) 
Sun 25 May 2–2.30 pm (20 tickets) 
Sun 25 May 4–4.30 pm (20 tickets) 

And 

Vitra Design Museum Office 

Sun 25 May 3–3.30 pm (15 tickets) 
Sun 25 May 4–4.30 pm (15 tickets) 
Sun 25 May 5–5.30 pm (15 tickets) 

Booking and further information here

The Shakers: A World in the Making
OPENING (EN)
Friday | 6 June 2025
Opening Talk 6 pm, Dome
Exhibition Opening 7 pm, Vitra Design Museum

The Vitra Design Museum's major exhibition »The Shakers: A World in the Making« presents timelessly functional objects that have had a profound influence on modern design, inspiring generations of artists, architects, and designers up to the present day. Established in the eighteenth century, the Shakers were a free church community that embraced social equality, communal property, and pacifism, viewing labour and design as crucial expressions of their faith. Throughout the show, works by contemporary artists and designers create moments of interaction and tension, inviting visitors to reflect on the Shaker legacy's enduring relevance.

For the Opening Talk, Exhibition Curator Mea Hoffmann has invited designer Chris Halstrøm and artists David Hartt and Amie Cunat to discuss how the pieces they created especially for the exhibition engage with the Shaker aesthetic and way of life.

The Exhibition Opening gives you the chance to be among the first to view the new exhibition. Experience unique Shaker objects alongside commissioned works by contemporary designers and artists. Enjoy the festive atmosphere of the opening night and join us for a drink on the lawn in front of the Vitra Design Museum.

Free admission, limited numbers; please book your ticket at events@design-museum.de

Reading Circle #1: A Shaker Text Discussion
CURATORS SPECIAL (EN)
Sunday | 27 July 2025
11–12.30 am, Vitra Design Museum

Established in the eighteenth century, the Shakers were a free church community that embraced social equality, communal property, and pacifism, viewing work and design as crucial expressions of their faith.

The Exhibition Curators invite you to read and discuss texts from the publication accompanying the exhibition »The Shakers: A World in the Making«. This includes a number of in-depth essays addressing the Shakers' impact on design, architecture, and art as well as detail studies on selected items and texts by contemporary artists and designers.

Reading Circle #1 will be held in English.
Texts will be mailed to you upon booking.
Free admission; please book your ticket at events@design-museum.de 

Reading Circle #2: A Shaker Text Discussion
CURATORS SPECIAL (DE)
Sunday | 14 September 2025
11–12.30 am, Müller Palermo, Basel

Established in the eighteenth century, the Shakers were a free church community that embraced social equality, communal property, and pacifism, viewing work and design as crucial expressions of their faith.

Exhibition Curator Mea Hoffmann and Assistant Curator Irina Selzer invite you to read and discuss texts from the publication accompanying the exhibition »The Shakers: A World in the Making«. This includes a number of in-depth essays addressing the Shakers' impact on design, architecture, and art as well as detail studies on selected items and texts by contemporary artists and designers.

Reading Circle #2 will be held in German.
Please note that the venue, the bookshop Müller Palermo, is in Basel, not on the Vitra Campus.
Texts will be mailed to you upon booking.
Free admission; please book your ticket at events@design-museum.de

The Shakers: Tea and Cake
SPECIAL (DE)
Saturday | 6 September 2025
3 pm, Vitra Design Museum

Tour: 3–4 pm
Tea and Cake: from 4 pm

Get together for tea, coffee, and a choice of baked goodies to round off your Curator's Tour of the exhibition »The Shakers: A World in the Making«. Our bakers use the original Shaker recipes!

Preparing food and planning meals was an important part of Shaker community life. Many traditional recipes for apple pie, nut cake, or doughnuts date back to the nineteenth century – and taste as good today as they did back then.

The tour will be held in German.
€ 39 per person including guided tour, snacks and beverages
Please book your ticket at www.design-museum.reservix.de/

»Singing is what makes work possible«
SPECIAL (EN)
Sunday | 28 September 2025
2-5pm, Vitra Design Museum

On the last day of the exhibition »The Shaker. A World in the Making« we invite you a special participatory rehearsal by Bill Dietz and Hong-Kai Wang »Singing is what makes work possible«. Together, we will discover Shaker Songs and engage with the legacy of Mother Rebecca Cox Jackson during a public walk.

Since Fall 2018, Bill Dietz & Hong-Kai Wang have been engaged in an iterative investigation into the relations between song, labor, and value. Dietz & Wang have pursued the practice of Shaker Song at its most radical, "era of manifestations" height. For »The Shaker. A World in the Making« Dietz & Wang offer a public rehearsal asking if and how we might feel toward remaining material traces of Shaker song and geography.

Bill Dietz is a composer and writer, born in Arizona. His work on genealogies of reception and the »political aesthetics of listening« is often presented in festivals, museums, and academic journals, but also in apartment buildings, magazines, and on public streets. Currently based in Taipei, Taiwan, Hong-Kai Wang is an interdisciplinary artist working across exhibition making, curating, performance, writing, publishing and education. 

Free admission. Please book your ticket at events@design-museum.de