NEW YORK, NY.- On June 22, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will launch the Guggenheim Forum, a new series of moderated online discussions among experts from a variety of fields that will occur in conjunction with major museum exhibitions. Each Guggenheim Forum will span two weeks, with one or more live chat sessions between its participants and site visitors offered during that period. To continue public dialogue on the exhibition-inspired topic, visitors are welcomed to submit their comments at any time, and select comments will be posted.

“As a critical extension of our work at the museum, the online Guggenheim Forum will bring to bear multiple perspectives on specific topics, prompting the emergence of new themes and fascinating digressions related to our exhibition and public programming,” said Nancy Spector, Chief Curator at the museum.

The inaugural Guggenheim Forum, titled Between the Over- and Underdesigned, is planned to coincide with Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, an exhibition co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on view through August 23. The Forum addresses the subject of how design can enhance or detract from everyday life. How might contemporary architects, designers, urban planners, and the rest of us attempt to build as Wright did, in harmonious integration with the environment, particularly in the planet’s burgeoning cities? Over the course of a gradually unfolding, two week conversation, the participants will focus upon a variety of questions: What is a well-designed space? How do we measure its value—economically, sociologically, emotionally, or in other ways? To what extent should the person who uses a space be involved in helping design it, or in creating his or her own space? What can we learn from different design solutions throughout history and across cultures?

New York– and Beijing-based Aric Chen, an independent journalist, critic, and curator, will moderate Between the Over- and Underdesigned and will host a live chat session. Chen is currently a contributing editor for I.D., Surface, Interior Design, Fast Company, and Metropolitan Home magazines and frequently writes for the New York Times, Metropolis, Art + Auction, among other publications. Panelists include Sarah Herda, Executive Director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and former Director/Curator of the Storefront for Art and Architecture, a nonprofit exhibition space in New York; Arjo Klamer, Professor of the Economics of Art and Culture at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the world’s only university faculty chairperson in the field of cultural economics; and Ellen Lupton, Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and author of numerous books on design, including Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Perils of Everyday Things (with Julia Lupton, St. Martin’s Press, 2009). In addition, David van der Leer, Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design at the Guggenheim Museum and co-curator of Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, will host a second live chat. Van der Leer frequently lectures and writes for publications including Domus, Mark, The Architect’s Newspaper, Azure, and PIN-UP.

Between the Over- and Underdesigned takes place June 22 through July 2 with live chat sessions scheduled with Aric Chen for 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, June 25, and with David van der Leer for 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 30. Future topics on Guggenheim Forum are to include discussion related to Kandinsky, a full-scale retrospective of the artist’s work that will be on view at the Guggenheim from September 18, 2009, through January 13, 2010. Guggenheim Forum may be found online beginning June 22 at www.guggenheim.org/forum.