It's also the process of thinking, planning, conceiving, envisioning, and building. Design is part of everyone's life and a measure of the quality of life. The museum, housed in the historic Andrew Carnegie Mansion across from Central Park in New York City, has an active program of exhibitions and publications that present compelling perspectives on the social, environmental, and economic impact of design. Visitors can explore important objects, rare and beautiful as well as familiar and commonplace. The theater presents performances by visiting companies and commissions original plays.
Programs vary from acting and puppetry to singing and instrumental performances.
Together, the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery form the national museum of Asian arts and cultures at the Smithsonian. The Freer Gallery of Art houses an internationally recognized collection of Asian art as well as the world's largest group of works by American artist James McNeill Whistler. The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is dedicated to exhibition, scholarship, education, and publication in the field of Asian art, representing cultures from the shores of the Mediterranean to Japan and spanning neolithic times to the present. Visitors can view sculpture by European and American masters in the museum, on the plaza, and in the sunken Sculpture Garden on the National Mall. The International Gallery presents exhibitions that deal with significant topics from various disciplines or cultural perspectives.