Open Access: Exploring 130 Years of American Design

Van Alen Institute has spent more than 130 years at the intersection of design ambition, education, and civic life. Today, we are a driving force behind community-led urban design, which believes that local knowledge and care enrich the design process. Our archive—comprising thousands of competition boards, jury records, photographs, and correspondences—is one of the most significant collections of American architectural history in existence. Much of it has never been seen by the public.

For the Fall 2026 exhibition Open Access: Exploring 130 Years of American Design, Van Alen invites emerging designers and creatives to delve into the accessible portions of our archive and respond to its material through the lens of open and fair access. We seek proposals that provoke reflection on the progression of design access, and position the archive as living material—something to be questioned, reinterpreted, and held accountable to the present. Projects may respond to specific archival materials or engage more thematically, and may use a wide range of creative approaches and mediums.

We seek projects that encourage us to ask:

• What civic challenges did Van Alen’s community take up and which were overlooked?

• Who was invited into Van Alen’s community to shape space and exchange ideas, and who was left out?

• If communities had always been centered in civic design, what might our cities look like today?

Participants will receive an all-inclusive $3,000 honorarium, curatorial support and mentorship opportunities from Van Alen, access to supplies from Materials for the Arts, and professional documentation of their projects.

For complete information and application instructions, visit https://www.vanalen.org/project/open-access/.

About Van Alen Institute

Van Alen Institute is a driving force behind community-led urban design, which believes that local knowledge and care enrich the design process. 

Since 1894, Van Alen has invested in people with a passion for improving cities through the power of architecture and design. Our public space projects build unconventional coalitions of designers, local stakeholders, and city leaders, and we support their visions through project scoping, hands-on guidance, and seed funding.

From our home in New York City, our work confronts longstanding power imbalances in citymaking, showcases the vanguard of community-led design, and supports the next generation of designers in creating more just cities.