Archinect - News

Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation adds to leadership team in Chicago

2023-07-21T14:24:00-04:00

The celebrated ongoing restoration of Chicago’s St. Laurence elementary school by the Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation has added new leadership to support the $10.35 million project, which broke ground on the city’s South Side in May 2022.

The Foundation shares that Nonprofit Operations Strategist Racheal Allen, Special Collections Librarian Heather Hummons, and Director of Finance Mileak Harper have all been hired in support of the initiative, which seeks to “[support] artists of color and their livelihoods, while bringing new cultural resources into the South Side community.”

Once completed the project will deliver a total of 40,000-square-feet 40,000 square feet of artist studios, co-working floors, a research archive, classrooms, and spaces dedicated to various objects from the Foundation's own collection.

Previously on Archinect: Theaster Gates' newest community arts incubator breaks ground on Chicago's South Side

In a statement, Gates said: “Central to the redemption of St. L...

NYC approves Olalekan Jeyifous and Amanda Williams' Shirley Chisholm monument for Brooklyn

2023-07-18T14:48:00-04:00

New York City is getting a new monument dedicated to the late pioneering Brooklyn congresswoman Shirley Chisholm following the approval on Monday, July 17, of a sculpture designed by artists Olalekan Jeyifous and Amanda Williams.

The piece is part of the city’s new She Built NYC initiative, a series of public art commissions created under the de Blasio administration that will install monuments to historic trailblazers in every borough over a proposed four-year timeline.

A previously-approved version of the monument, which will be the first ever to depict a woman in Brooklyn, was delayed through the pandemic and will now restart using a slightly refined design featuring a gestalt of imagery that combines Chisholm’s silhouette and the U.S. Capitol Building dome into one 32-foot latticed steel form. The artists say this combination “symbolizes how she disrupted the perception of who has the right to occupy such institutions and to be an embodiment for democracy.”

The 2019 'Our Desti...

Royal College of Art establishes a new scholarship fund named for the late design visionary Virgil Abloh

2022-11-07T13:35:00-05:00

The Royal College of Art has recently unveiled a new scholarship named for its late visiting professor and designer, Virgil Abloh.

The £35,000 (about $40,000) RCA Virgil Abloh Scholarship will cover the full tuition and fees for talented Black British students facing financial restrictions who are interested in studying any program at the London institution’s School of Design.

The scholarship also provides important networking and professional opportunities to students as supported by Abloh’s former creative partner Samuel Ross and additional parties in various creative industries across the UK.

Previously on Archinect: Virgil Abloh announces new $1 million scholarship fund for Black fashion students

An RCA press release indicated its intention to “recognize Abloh’s support for education, his career-long ethos of using his practice to create social change and his position as a renowned champion for equality of opportunity.”

The school also says the money will “help break down barrier...

The Black Reconstruction Collective honors cultural practitioners Tonika Lewis Johnson and Ife Salema Vanable in inaugural prize

2022-07-28T18:51:00-04:00

Continuing with its mission to support and acknowledge Black cultural agents of change within the community, the Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC) has announced the winners of its inaugural Black Reconstruction Collective Prize. Made possible with support from the Mellon Foundation, the BRC recognizes Chicago-based photographer/social justice artist Tonika Lewis Johnson and Bronx-based architect, historian, and theorist Ife Salema Vanable as this year's winners.

"This prize was created by the founders of the Black Reconstruction Collective as a way to launch the organization as a funder and support system for Black creatives," shares the BRC. Both will receive an unrestricted monetary prize of $5,000, allowing them to use the funds to carry out their design pursuits as they see fit. Newly appointed BRC Collaborative Manager Michelle Lisa Polissaint writes, "Ife and Tonika exemplify the mission of the Black Reconstructive Collective & I'm so excited to spend the next year working...

Theaster Gates' newest community arts incubator breaks ground on Chicago's South Side

2022-05-10T17:22:00-04:00

On the heels of another recent multimillion-dollar community revitalization effort through his non-profit Rebuild Foundation, 2022 Serpentine Pavilion designer Theaster Gates was back in the South Side last week to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new St. Laurence Arts Incubator in Chicago.

Joined by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Gates spoke about the new $10.35 million project, which will transform a disused elementary school — shuttered since 2002 — into a “think tank and makerspace” for local artists with 40,000 square feet of studios, co-working, research, educational, and entrepreneurial spaces. The new initiative joins Gates’ Prada-backed Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab, also located on the South Side, that was announced last summer.

Image courtesy of the Rebuild Foundation

“The St. Laurence renovation is a work of art in and of itself," local philanthropist Alec Litowitz said in a statement prior to the May 3rd groundbreaking ceremony. "Resurrecting this ab...

LA's Destination Crenshaw announces first cohort of artists to create permanent outdoor monuments for cultural corridor

2021-09-01T17:13:00-04:00

Destination Crenshaw, a $100 million initiative that will transform a 1.3-mile stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles into a business, art, and cultural corridor in celebration of Black LA, has announced the artists commissioned to create permanent outdoor artworks. The initiative is featuring artists at every career stage who are closely connected to the Black community of South LA.

The cohort includes Charles Dickson, Melvin Edwards, Maren Hassinger, Artis Lane, Alison Saar, Kehinde Wiley, and Brenna Youngblood. This is the inaugural group out of the 100 artists who will create works for the public-private initiative—the largest commissioned project ever undertaken for Black artists. This initial group will create sculptures, including a monument by Wiley, for Sankofa Park, a public gathering space being created for the project, and for other sites within the Destination Crenshaw route.

Previously on Archinect: Destination Crenshaw breaks ground on 1.3-mile-long outdo...

'Architecture as a vehicle for liberation and joy:' Michael Kimmelman in conversation with the Black Reconstruction Collective

2021-03-11T19:02:00-05:00

What’s below is a conversation with members of the Black Reconstruction Collective, which came together during the past year and a half, in tandem with an exhibition now at the Museum of Modern Art called “Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.” The collective’s members are the 10 architects, artists and designers in the exhibition.

NYT architecture critic Michael Kimmelman has published a condensed version of his conversation with Amanda Williams, Emanuel Admassu, J. Yolande Daniels, and V. Mitch McEwen — four of the ten architects, designers, and artists of the Black Reconstruction Collective whose work is currently featured in the MoMA exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.

Related on Archinect:

MoMA agrees to temporarily cover Philip Johnson's name with Black Reconstruction Collective artwork

2021-03-02T13:59:00-05:00

The debate over Philip Johnson's past and ongoing legacy continues: after The ---- Johnson Study Group published an open letter calling for all institutions to remove the name of Philip Johnson from "every leadership title, public space, and honorific of any form" in response to the architect's documented Fascist past and support of white supremacy, the Museum of Modern Art, where he was the Director at the Department of Architecture, has now agreed to temporarily cover up Johnson’s name during the run of its current exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.

A 10-by-10 foot denim textile piece created collaboratively by the nonprofit Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC) and printed with the group's "Manifesting Statement" will greet visitors at the exhibition entrance, blocking the museum's permanent gallery signage.

Previously on Archinect: Creative community issues a call to remove Philip Johnson's name because of his fascist past

"We accepted their exhib...

New MoMA exhibition investigates architecture, Blackness, and anti-Black racism in America

2021-02-12T12:57:00-05:00

Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America is the fourth installment of the Issues in Contemporary Architecture series at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The exhibition investigates the intersections of architecture, Blackness, and anti-Black racism in the United States.

Olalekan Jeyifous. …other seasonal occupancy neighborhoods. 2020. Courtesy of Olalekan Jeyifous. The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Moreover, the featured projects will look at contemporary architecture and its role in the systemic racism that has facilitated discrimination and injustice in the U.S. A system that has informed and continues to inform the design of American cities through public policies, municipal planning, and architecture that has specifically impacted the Black community.

J. Yolande Daniels, principal, studioSUMO | Los Angeles. Race Plate. 2020. Digital rendering, 24 x 36″ (61 x 91.4 cm). Image courtesy of the artist. The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Reconstructions will feature 10 n...

NMAAHC launches initiative to celebrate the work of Black architects

2020-06-08T11:38:00-04:00

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has launched Rendering Visible, a digital collecting initiative intended to celebrate the "creative production" of Black architects. Through a call for submissions, the initiative will allow the museum to to select architectural illustrations to be considered for inclusion in the Museum's digital collection.

According to the museum website, the goal of Rendering Visible is to document the creativity of Black architects and designers. Submissions should include sketches, renderings, and artistic illustrations that convey the intent and concept of a design project.

Submit your work here.

OCAD University aims for diversity with five new tenure-track Faculty of Design hires

2020-06-04T11:47:00-04:00

On August 1, 2020 five new tenure-track faculty members will join OCAD University's Faculty of Design. The new hires make up part an effort to address the university's Academic Plan 2017-2022, which the institution has structured to establish a commitment to "decolonization, diversity, and equity."

According to Dr. Dori Tunstall, Dean, Faculty of Design at OCAD, candidates were sought out to fill the needed positions for their work with and within the Black community and for their technical, theoretical, and design/making expertise.

Dr. Sara Diamond, President and Vice-Chancellor, OCAD University shared in a press statement, "This is an important announcement within today’s context, given recent anti-Black racism protests and events [...] “OCAD U understands that valuing diverse creative practices and forms of knowledge are essential to, and enrich, the institution’s core mission and vision as an art and design university with a local and global scope."

Meet the faculty below:

Ange...