Need More Barbie? The Museum of Arts & Design has Exclusive East Coast Exhibit
It has already drawn thousands to its earlier exhibitions in Phoenix and Las Vegas. The exclusive East Coast of Barbie®: A Cultural Icon runs through March 16 at the Museum of Arts & Design at Columbus Circle.
| 10 Jan 2025 | 12:23
Visitors to “Barbie®: A Cultural Icon” can sit in a life-size Barbie pink convertible and pretend that they too are Malibu Barbies. (
)
The “Barbie®: A Cultural Icon” exhibit at the Museum of Arts & Design has already run in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Its exclusive East Coast exhibit runs through mid-March. (
)
The exhibit that runs through mid-March at the Columbus Circle venue, the Museum of Arts & Design, captures the many careers of Barbie over the years from airline stewardess to nurse to astronaut. (
)
If there’s anyone who can one-up Taylor Swift...well, it’s that doll who became a smash hit movie, and is now pulling in fans at the Museum of Arts & Design at Columbus Circle. Yep, Barbie is back!
If you didn’t get enough from Margot Robbie’s cinematic celebration last summer, here are two floors filled with memorabilia, hundreds of dolls, gadgets, even a car...and a whole lot of excitement. Soon to equal that of the museum’s past exhibit on the storytelling prowess of Swift. “They were and are both gangbuster exhibits,” says Senior Curator Barbara Paris Skiffer.
The theme here is, specifically, fashion, “through the lens of Barbie,” says Skiffer. Fortunately, there is history here too. The exhibit begins with the story of Ruth and Elliot Handler, who created Barbie for Mattel Toys.
The exhibition, curated by Karan Feder and drawn from the private collection of David Porcello and Mattel Inc., also features more than 50 historical objects and five unique photo opportunities, including a life-size Barbie Ultra ‘Vette™ with which visitors can interact. The exhibit will also showcase the Barbie Signature 65th Blue Sapphire Anniversary Fashion Dolls, paying homage to the iconic history and legacy of Barbie.
Barbie®: A Cultural Icon is presented in collaboration with Illusion Projects. The major exhibition first debuted in 2021 in Phoenix and Las Vegas. This exhibit marks its exclusive East Coast engagement
If you need reminding, the story goes that when the couple was visiting Europe, Ruth saw windows and stores filled with a very different kind of doll—named Lili—rather than the babyish models that American youngsters were trained to care for. Ruth figured out—and finally convinced a company filled with men—that our girls, too, would rather play with dolls who looked like what they aspired to be.
Okay: personal memory time. My family—as in my parents—owned a home on a beach. It turned out that our next-door neighbors were the Handlers, then retired. I confess I had no idea who they had been professionally. I mostly remember Ruth loving to play competitive board games. Their daughter–yes, Barbara–was a luscious redhead, about ten years my senior. And they had a son, Ken, who we hardly ever saw and later died mysteriously. [Editor’s note: his mother at the time attributed the cause of death to a brain tumor but at least two authors, Jerry Oppenheimer and Robin Geber’ said when he died at age 50 it was from complications from AIDS.]
Once our daughter—also named Lily, by the way—became old enough to know of Barbie, the Handlers gave her some of the original models. And, of course, we felt partial to the top-selling one, Malibu Barbie. (who has a big role in this exhibit) The Handlers had a sad parting with Mattel—a financial scandal—and Ruth then developed breast cancer. But she was a dynamo, and the next thing we knew, she created a prosthetic device for other women sufferers. She died in 2002. (Elliott in 2011) She made Barbie happen, and made a cameo appearance in the movie, embodied by Rhea Perlman.
As for Barbara, she always had mixed feelings about her unusual star power. But she was kind and perhaps even grew to embrace it. My husband and I once held a big gathering at our house, and there were quite a few well-known folks from the news and political worlds. (The kinds who are mostly impressed with themselves) But when word got out that the real Barbie was sitting on the deck next door, that was it. I still recall anchorman Brian Williams making his way over the deck and chatting with her for a long time. He was not alone.
The Handler house was eventually sold to Trump buddy, the billionaire businessman Sheldon Adelson. Ruth Handler had been a long-time left-wing supporter. Part of me is glad she didn’t live to see who was living in the rooms she built.
On the other hand, I can’t help but believe how proud, and likely surprised, Ruth and Elliott would be if they could see what’s happening at New York’s Design Museum. The exhibit is up through March.