Edwin Schlossberg

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.

Edwin Schlossberg studied at Columbia University and Birch Wathen Lenox School. The recorded working language is English. Residence is recorded at Park Avenue. Work by Edwin Schlossberg is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago and Vanderbilt Museum of Art.

• Birth Name — Edwin Arthur Schlossberg • Born — 19 July 1945 • Birthplace — New York City, New York, U.S. • Occupation — * Designer • artist • author • Children — * Rose • Tatiana • Jack • Education — Columbia University (BA, MA, PhD) • Relatives — Kennedy family (by marriage) Bouvier family (by marriage) • Website — edwinschlossbergart.com

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. Schlossberg graduated from Manhattan's Birch Wathen School, then took his undergraduate and post-graduate education at Columbia University, eventually earning a Ph.D. in Science and Literature in 1971. His thesis, which was later published as a book, was an imaginary conversation between Albert Einstein and Samuel Beckett, an idea that Schlossberg conceived while napping at Columbia’s philosophy library. One of his advisors at Columbia was mathematician and philosopher Jacob Bronowski. Schlossberg was also mentored by futurist Buckminster Fuller.

Schlossberg developed as an artist during the 1960s in New York. His style has been described as usage of words and image, through unconventional media, to create visual poetry in his art. He has been singled out as a "leader in interactive design" by Wired magazine, and has also been called a Renaissance man, an intellectual jack-of-all-trades, and the grandmaster of interactivity by several publications. In an interview with Nature in 2009, Schlossberg stated: "If you put a bucket of water in front of a child—2 years old, 5 years old, even 8 years old—they will play with it forever. They learn a lot because they can craft a range of experiences as they integrate their sensory and physical worlds. I try to design like that”. • Illustration — Schlossberg (second from right) with his fellow members in the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, February 2013 Schlossberg's first foray into interactive design came in 1977, when he was hired to develop exhibits for the Brooklyn Children's Museum. He founded ESI Design that same year. As lead designer of his firm based on Fifth Avenue in New York City, he has created retail and corporate spaces, sales and innovation centers, museums, digital media installations and multi-player game environments for an array of corporations, brands and cultural institutions including: Ellis Island – American Family Immigration History Center, Playa Vista, Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, eBay, PNC Bank, Terrell Place in Washington, D.C., Barclays Center Media Experience in Brooklyn, Best Buy Concept Stores, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, Reuters Spectacular at 3 Times Square, Sony Plaza and Sony Wonder Technology Lab, Time Warner Home to the Future installation, World Financial Center Breezeway Media Walls, World Trade Center and the World Financial Center Informational Kiosks. Schlossberg has authored eleven books and has also lectured at Columbia, the School of the Visual Arts, and the Rhode Island School of Design. His artworks have also appeared in solo exhibitions and museum collections in the United States and around the world. In 2004, he won the National Arts Club Medal of Honor, and in 2011, was appointed by 44th U.S. President Barack Obama to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, serving until 2013. He was named fellow by the Society for Experiential Graphic Design in 2020.

• Illustration — Schlossberg with wife Caroline Kennedy in Canberra in April 2023 Schlossberg married Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in a Catholic ceremony at Our Lady of Victory Church in Centerville, Massachusetts, on July 19, 1986, his 41st birthday. They met while both were working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have three children, all born in New York: Rose (b. 1988), Tatiana Celia (1990–2025), and John Bouvier "Jack" (b. 1993). Schlossberg's daughter Tatiana died at the age of 35 from acute myeloid leukemia.

Schlossberg is portrayed by Ben Shenkman in the 2026 television mini-series Love Story.