Liu Lecture: Llisa Demetrios

Join us for a conversation on Infinite Curiosity, Design and Possibility, with Llisa Demetrios, Chief Curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity and granddaughter of Ray and Charles Eames.

This is a special opportunity to learn with one of design's most thoughtful and enduring influences, a chance to see the Eames legacy through fresh eyes, and to connect with fellow makers and thinkers in our community.

This is an evening for the entire d.school community and beyond—students wondering who you are as a designer, practitioners looking for new inspiration, and anyone seeking to create with both intention and joy.

Llisa Demetrios has spent her adult life caring for the Eames Collection and curating the Eames Ranch, initially alongside her mother, Lucia Eames, and now as Chief Curator alongside the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity team. Llisa loves welcoming guests, be they Eames aficionados or people entirely unfamiliar with design. Before the advent of the Institute, Llisa facilitated the loans for “The World of Charles & Ray Eames” exhibition that started at the Barbican Centre in England in 2015 and continued to Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Michigan, and the Oakland Museum of California in February 2019. Llisa also worked in the Mies van der Rohe Archive at MoMA, and has spoken globally. She is a founding and current member of the Eames Foundation Board of Directors, which oversees the historic Eames House in Los Angeles, and also a shareholder of the Eames Office. Llisa is also the chairperson of the Petaluma Arts Center Board of Directors, and curator of its current exhibition of collections built by Petaluma residents.

 

On Eames Institute

Founded in 2019 and launched in 2022, the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to advancing the legacy of 20th-century designers Ray and Charles Eames by sparking curiosity in the world around us. Over the course of their decades-long partnership, the husband-and-wife duo approached design as a tool for problem-solving and discovery⁠—driven by curiosity, refined through iteration, and always guided by purpose.

The Institute now carries forward this ethos through its stewardship of multiple legacies, places, and ideas. At the Eames Archives, the Institute cares for a collection of more than 40,000 artifacts from the original Eames Office. At the Eames Ranch, the Institute and our partners explore agriculture as an act of design, focusing on regenerative farming methods, land stewardship, and water conservation. Our forthcoming museum in Novato, CA, will further expand public access to the Institute’s programs and collections. The Institute also continues longstanding traditions of publishing, design discourse, and visual inspiration through its stewardship of select legacy businesses, including  William Stout Architectural Books  in San Francisco and Zürich-based Lars Müller Publishers.

Across these efforts, the Institute is building a new kind of cultural organization, one that preserves history not as static memory, but as fuel for creative possibilities for the future. We seek to inspire creative problem-solving that positively shapes our world. Read our Impact Report  to see how this mission comes to life through our programs, partnerships, and community.