Tools for Change: Selections from the Hechinger Collection

By now, the Hechinger Collection might be better known that the hardware store that inspired its existence. The diverse collection started by John Hechinger in 1978 exceeds 375 works by 250 established and emerging artists mostly of the post-WWII era. The works were carefully chosen based on their varying tools motifs, all of which awaken our appreciation for the very tools that—as extensions of ourselves—allow us to construct and create or destroy and demolish.

Tools for Change: Selections from the Hechinger Collection, features 18 pieces of the Hechinger Collection that remove tools from their utilitarian, invisible state and in turn places them under the spotlight. The exhibition transforms the ordinary tool into an object of art to be admired, and above all, reminds us that our tools are a way of change—for better or worse.