A new exhibit at Cooper Hewitt, “Ellen DeGeneres Selects,” is part of an ongoing series in which the museum asks top designers, artists and architects “to mine and interpret the museum’s collection of more than 210,000 objects.” Talk show host, comedian and design enthusiast Ellen DeGeneres, who recently launched a furniture line, has curated 50 objects. The exhibit focuses on midcentury modernism and also encompasses other time periods. Among the findings: an ancient Egyptian votive box; a Peruvian earthenware vessel; a 1935 drawing by Christina Malman and a late-19th-century music box. Other items include DeGeneres’s own lamps, sourced at a Paris flea market.

“An avid traveler and sophisticated design collector, Ellen’s selections are inspired by her journeys through Africa, Europe and beyond, and underscore the global reach of the museum's collection,” says Cooper Hewitt’s director, Caroline Baumann. “The objects chosen range from iconic works of modernist design to vernacular expressions of local cultures. Presented in provocative groupings, the installation reinforces Cooper Hewitt’s commitment to present an integrated vision of design that embraces its full range of creative expression.”

Says DeGeneres, who also included a wall unit designed by George Nelson, plates by Pablo Picasso, and furniture from Charles and Ray Eames, Arne Jacobsen and Bruno Mathsson in the collection of objects: “I’ve had a passion for design for as long as I can remember. This exhibition represents all the qualities I love and cultivate in my own home, and I hope it sparks visitors’ own creativity.”

The exhibit will be on view from this Friday, November 11, to until May 21, 2017.