Wed, Jan 15, 2025
masters’ talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Llisa Demetrios, Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity
What can we learn from Ray & Charles Eames that might apply to the challenges we face today?
What can we learn from Ray & Charles Eames that might apply to the challenges we face today?
Ray & Charles Eames demonstrated—time and time again—design’s unique ability to address disparate clients’ needs, while finding ways to improve quality of life for all. What can we as designers and creatives learn from the Eameses that might apply to the challenges we face today?
Llisa Demetrios is the youngest granddaughter of iconic designers Charles & Ray Eames. She began her archiving career at the Mies van der Rohe Archive at MoMA in New York, and has since dedicated herself to extending her grandparents’ most important gifts to the world: their infinite curiosity and iterative design process. Her personal mission is to equip everyone with lessons of Charles & Ray so that anyone can use design to solve problems at all scales. Today, as Chief Curator at the Eames Institute, Llisa continues to share learnings from her legacy through exhibitions, events, and public tours at the new public space in Richmond.
Llisa Demetrios has spent decades caring for the Eames Collection and curating the Eames Ranch, initially alongside her mother, Lucia Eames, and now as Chief Curator alongside the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity team. Llisa loves welcoming guests, be they Eames aficionados or people entirely unfamiliar with design. Before the advent of the Institute, Llisa facilitated loans for “The World of Charles & Ray Eames” exhibition that started at the Barbican Centre in England in 2015 and continued to Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Michigan, and the Oakland Museum of California in February 2019. She is also a founding and current member of the Eames Foundation Board of Directors, which oversees the historic Eames House in Los Angeles, and also a shareholder of the Eames Office.
Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity
The overarching goal of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity is to unpack the way that Ray & Charles Eames worked, the way they infused their designs and lives with curiosity and discovery at every turn to solve problems at any scale. “We don’t do ‘art’ – we solve problems,” said Charles. Then he added “How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?” They demonstrated—time and time again—design’s unique ability to address disparate clients’ needs, while finding ways to improve quality of life for all.
Being able to share the legacy of Ray and Charles in this way, to showcase their incredible process and wide-angled vision of design, is the dream of a lifetime. Their boundless curiosity and relentless pursuit of solving problems in furniture, film, exhibits, architecture, and textiles is in the name of the Institute. The Institute aspires to be a home for curious problem-solvers, both on-line and on-land. I hope the Institute’s efforts will help people find inspiration for solving problems in their own world.
