The South’s Next Wave: Design Challenge was an exhibition focusing on the work of designers and artists from across the Southeastern United States whose talent and training allowed for the creation and imagination of remarkable objects and interiors. Their works were showcased in seventeen vignettes spread throughout the museum’s galleries, and visitors were encouraged to vote for their favorite vignette upon viewing the exhibition.

The creation of each vignette occurred when the exhibition’s curators paired emerging object designers with established interior designers and artists, asking them to collaborate on the design and production of a vignette housing one or more extraordinary objects. Prior to The South’s Next Wave, the artists had never worked together and, in most cases, were not even acquainted. Their challenge was to collaborate through combining their expertise in different disciplines to produce astonishing displays that captivated the imaginations of their viewers.