In the past three years, D center Baltimore has been working hard to advocate for design awareness in the Baltimore community and beyond. With our recent expansion into the 218 Saratoga Street storefront gallery, D center @ MAP, and with our receipt of the National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Placemaking Grant for our proposal with Maryland Institute College of Art, Central Baltimore Partnership, and Station North Arts and Entertainment District, we feel now is the time to revisit the questions that inspired our big tent: “Does Baltimore need a design center? If so, what would it look like, and what can it do?”

Network (Temporary Permanent Collection) re-roots and re-inspires the birth of the conversation that lead to the inception of D center: multiple disciplines, ages, and interests, convening on a moment en masse to excite and ignite design discourse in the city. The show features work, projects, and research from contributors, colleagues, and constituents of the design center’s past, present, and future that demonstrate their relationship to design. As an institution built of relationships and collaborations, Network (Temporary Permanent Collection) uses the free-hung salon as a medium to make permanent bonds with invested parties, adding to our collective network rather than physical acquisitions.