Exhibit Opening - Cultural Carry-On: America's Literal Baggage

Drawing from the over 12,000 bags of the Lee L. Forman Collection of Bags, Cultural Carry-On: America’s Literal Baggage showcases human experience and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries—from travel to politics to trash—through the canvas of bags. The student-designed exhibit opens Friday, July 16th in the Institute for Human Science and Culture’s Metzger Galleries, with an opening reception from 4:00-6:00pm.

Guests may reserve 30-minute time slots to attend this free event via timed ticketing. If max capacity in the gallery has been reached, you will be asked to wait until visitors leave the space. For everyone’s safety, we ask for your patience and understanding.

The Lee L. Forman Collection of Bags is the legacy and namesake of Lee L. Forman, who started saving the new paper Bloomingdale’s shopping bags in the 1970s. The collection grew as Forman became increasingly interested in the design and history of bags as cultural icons. The Lee L. Forman Bag Collection arrived at the Cummings Center in the summer of 2019 as a key collection of the Institute for Human Science and Culture by way of Howard Forman.

The Institute for Human Science and Culture (IHSC) is a multidisciplinary institute that promotes education and research in the history, preservation, documentation, and interpretation of the human experience. The mission of the IHSC is to explore what it means to be human. The IHSC promotes document- and object-based, experiential education in arts, humanities, and science. The IHSC is one of three branches of the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology. Learn more at https://uakron.edu/chp/institute/