Understanding Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian Automatic House

FAIN: GA-274565-20

Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, NH 03104-4380)
Andrew Spahr (Project Director: May 2020 to present)

The retention of four employees to create digital assets around two Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Houses in the collection.

This project develops the research, interpretation, and programming of a Usonian Automatic home by Frank Lloyd Wright recently acquired by the Currier Museum. It will be programmed together with another Wright house owned by the museum. This project intends to build a new understanding of the social context of the house, and present this in tours, web content, classes, and publications. The Usonian Automatic house (1957) was purchased in Nov. 2019 with donated funds. A research and interpretative plan was developed and was just commencing when the covid-19 crisis suspended it. The museum intends to refocus more of this work to digital platforms, while preparing for on-site programs. Without support, this important new initiative will be suspended indefinitely as the museum faces annual deficits of $700,000 or more. This important monument of modern American domestic architecture is now inaccessible. It would be Wright’s only Usonian Automatic house open to the public.