Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution is led by Paul Warwick Thompson. His directorial tenure began in 2001. Thompson has established and implemented his vision for a new Cooper-Hewitt, one involving greater balance between historic and scholarly exhibitions in the decorative arts and contemporary international design.
  
Under his leadership, the museum has received acclaim for its inspired exhibitions, public programs and educational activities and reached new milestones with respect to visitors, public outreach and fiscal strength.

In fiscal year 2007, Cooper-Hewitt welcomed approximately 227,000 visitors, a 22 percent increase in visitors from the previous year and a 58 percent increase in visitors from fiscal year 2005. Fiscal year 2007 was also a record-breaking year in terms of visitor-related business activities, with admissions revenues reflecting a 23 percent increase from fiscal year 2006 and nearly doubling since fiscal year 2005.

Thompson launched a capital campaign in 2007, which will further strengthen Cooper-Hewitt’s role as the pre-eminent authority on the study of design in the United States. The project will nearly double the museum’s total exhibition space, continue the virtual expansion of Cooper-Hewitt’s Web site and establish an endowment to support general operating expenses, education programs, exhibitions and collections. Under Thompson’s leadership, Cooper-Hewitt also continues to develop its presence on the Web through access to featured work from the museum’s 200,000-object collection and expanded professional development programs for K-12 teachers.

Thompson also has addressed the museum’s need for a permanent gallery space devoted to the collection. With the opening of the Nancy and Edwin Marks Gallery in fall 2003, the public now has the opportunity to view and appreciate the museum’s prized treasures. In spring 2006, the museum opened the Target National Design Education Center, which features a remodeled lecture room and several new public spaces, including a 1,300-square-foot gallery, design studio and resource center for teachers.

Before joining Cooper-Hewitt, Thompson served as director of the Design Museum in London. During his time there, admissions increased by 59 percent in five years and education group visits increased by 35 percent in three years. In addition, Thompson’s negotiations with the England’s Major and Blair administrations resulted in a funding agreement with the Secretary of State for Media, Culture and Sport, making the Design Museum the first museum to be taken under the rubric of state-funded ‘National Museum’ in more than a decade.

Outside the world of art galleries and museums, Thompson has worked diligently to heighten awareness of the role design plays within an increasingly global society. Formerly employed by the British Department for Trade and Industry’s Design Council, Thompson has been a consistent advocate for design education—both within industry and formal education.

He has written extensively on design and, in 1989, presented the acclaimed six-part BBC education, design and technology program “Techno.” A zealous champion of design education, and a former schoolteacher, Thompson played an influential role in advocating for design and technology within the United Kingdom’s national curriculum, which now mandates all children ages 6 to 16 to study design in school. His work in the field of design education resulted in his receiving the honorary fellow award from the Royal College of Art in 2000.

Born in Oxford, England, Thompson holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bristol, as well as master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of East Anglia.

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