"Design has spread like gas to almost all facets of human activity, from science and education to politics and policymaking. For a simple reason: one of design’s most fundamental tasks is to help people deal with change." Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the New York Museum of Modern Art, in The Economist, November 2010.
Globalization and international economic processes have changed most people’s lives forever. Modern economies can’t compete with the labor costs in China and other Asian countries.
The relative advantage that the West, and particularly Israel, has, is knowledge and productivity. Design combines both. In Holon we believe that design will become a more substantial feature of everything that we buy and do, every day. We can already see how design processes are being integrated in our lives, and once there, seem as though they’d always been there, so that one cannot do without them. What used to be seen as “luxury” is now taken for granted.
Design is expected to be one of Israel’s main export industries in the coming years, which is why Holon believes that advancing knowledge in this field should be a national priority. Seeking to lead and influence Israeli culture, Holon is dedicated to promoting design both in theory and in practice. Design Museum Holon is a major element in this endeavor, reflecting the city's long-standing commitment to education and culture, and its quest to put design at the top of Israel’s cultural agenda.
Holon’s Vision Statement calls for Holon to “be a leading international hub for innovation in the field of design." One of the city’s main statement of priority is to integrate the language of design into the municipal and educational experience, while applying ecological principles in the development of the city’s ‘street language.
Over the last years the municipal galleries in Holon focus on design in its various manifestations. The 2011-2012 Israeli Design Season was opened on Saturday night, September 17, 2011, with five new exhibitions in the municipal galleries.
The city also plans to open design studios in the Business and Industrial Zone. The studios will function as business incubators for designers, enabling them to flourish independently once they get sufficient experience and earn their reputations.
In 2011, Holon and the Israel Community of Designers joined forces to hold Israel Design Week at the Design Museum Holon and throughout the city – another initiative aimed at promoting design in Israel, and Holon as Israel’s design capital.
"This grand new era has already begun," wrote Antonelli, in her essay in The Economist. “Design is moving center-stage in the eternal human quest to make beauty out of necessity,”
A film about Holon, the City of Design, broadcast on Good Life Channel Israel