September 9 - December 13, 2024

The Build It: create with cardboard! exhibition at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking celebrates cardboard, the humble backbone of economics, industry, and design. As a relatively inexpensive material that is durable, strong, customizable, and sustainable, cardboard has become indispensable to our daily lives. Though most of us think of cardboard strictly as a shipping material, this simple material is also perfect for designing, exploring, and problem-solving ideas for mechanisms and building structures.

The paper museum has fashioned Build It: create with cardboard! as a hands-on experience for visitors to explore design thinking through the wonderful qualities of cardboard. Visitors can try their hand at arranging a marble run, using a cardboard decoder to discover hidden information in the gallery, take selfies using cardboard props, build hand-cranked movable cardboard automatons, as well as making personal cardboard creations of their own design. We invite visitors to learn firsthand about design thinking through the material exploration of various cardboard prototypes in this hands-on exhibition. Come create with cardboard!