Edwin Arthur Schlossberg (born July 19, 1945) is an American designer, artist, and author. A pioneer and leader of interactive museum installations, he is the founder and principal designer of ESI Design, a multidisciplinary firm specializing in interactive environments for discovery learning and communication. An author of eleven books including Interactive Excellence: Defining and Developing New Standards for the Twenty-first Century, Schlossberg’s artworks have also appeared in solo exhibitions and museum collections in the United States and around the world.
Born and raised in New York City, Schlossberg earned a Ph.D. in Science and Literature from Columbia University and has also lectured at Columbia and the Rhode Island School of Design. Called the "Grandmaster of Interactivity" by the Los Angeles Times, he won the National Arts Club Medal of Honor in 2004, and in 2011, was appointed by 44th U.S. President Barack Obama to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, serving until 2013.
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Early life and education
Edwin Arthur Schlossberg was born on July 19, 1945, in New York City, to Alfred Irving (1908–1995) and Celia Mae (née Hirsch 1910–2005) Schlossberg. He grew up in an extended Orthodox Jewish family. Four of his great-grandparents were Ellis Island immigrants who were born within 50 miles of one another in the vicinity of Poltava, the Russian Empire. His father was founder and president of a textile-manufacturing company and was also president of the Park East Synagogue in New York's Upper East Side where Schlossberg studied Hebrew and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. His sister, Maryann Schlossberg Gelula, is an artist.