Jews on Vinyl, opening February 6, 2010, presents a unique take on identity in American history.

Co-curated by Roger Bennet and Josh Kun (who wrote And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records we have Loved and Lost) the exhibition exposes Jewish American life through images and sounds of American popular culture. The duo are also behind the blog trailofourvinyl.com and operate a non-profit record label dedicated to releasing forgot gems of Jewish popular music.

Jews on Vinyl will run through late Spring at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.

More Jews on Vinyl after the jump.

Celebrating ten years of the National Design Awards, Design USA: Contemporary Innovation at the Cooper-Hewitt covers all the prize winners in a retrospective exhibition. The National Design Awards program was founded in 2000 with the aim of helping to increase national awareness of design in education and promotion of excellence. The exhibition is divided into five themes – CRAFT, EXPERIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, MATERIALS, and METHOD – all of which are fundamental elements of design disciplines. In total, the exhibit works to explore and explain the changes and shifts to American design over the last decade and highlight where its moving in the future.

Design USA: Contemporary Innovation runs through April 4, 2010. The web component is worth flipping through.

You’ll recognize the above design by Jonathan Ive & Apple. More winners after the jump.

There is no questioning the depth and scope of The Morgan Library & Museum’s collection. Among the terrific holdings are some fascinating documents outlining the development of modern set design. 50 drawings from this portion of the collection make up Creating the Modern Stage, which over 4 sections reveals how modern technology led to new theories about the role of actor and stage set. Enriching the drawings are photographs, musical scores and more. Worth going even if you’re not into the theater, the building itself is a marvel.

It’s time for a change for MoMu – Fashion Museum Province of Antwerp. After seven years of showcasing fashion exhibitions locally, they are now planning on putting two of their most celebrated shows on the road – “6+. Antwerp Fashion” and “Maison Martin Margiela (20) The Exhibition.” 

Munich and Tokyo is where they will land. “Maison Martin Margiela (20) The Exhibition/ Die Austellung’ will open on March 19th 2009 at Haus der Kunst in Munich and will run from March 20th until June 1st 2009. ‘6+. Antwerp Fashion’ opens on April 10th 2009 at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan and runs from April 11th until June 28th 2009.”

More information is available at www.momu.be.

Milwaukee’s Harley-Davidson Museum might not be high on “must get to list” for everyone, but luckily some fine ephemera is on view via online exhibitions. A selection of company advertisements caught attention this morning, and are a nice contrast to the contemporary art projects revolving around the bikes these days. Check it at Harley-Davidson.

A few favorites follow.

A good exhibition isn’t just about the objects and analysis. There is a heavy degree of design savvy required to make things hum. It’s Nice That hips us to London’s Bibliotheque Design, the firm that devised the label system for the V&A’s Cold War Modern. Bibliotheque has recently updated their website, which now includes a section devoted to their portion of the project. From both a museological and design point of view, “it’s nice that” they’ve taken the time to explain their steps and rational.

A few more examples of Bibliotheque’s work for the V&A follows.