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The Black Reconstruction Collective, dedicated to supporting Black creatives, is currently searching for a Collaborative Coordinator

2022-01-25T15:10:00-05:00

In 2019, ten architects, artists, designers, and academics came together to discuss their plans for an upcoming exhibition with MoMA's curatorial team. Emanuel Admassu, Germane Barnes, Sekou Cooke, J. Yolande Daniels, Felecia Davis, Mario Gooden, Walter J. Hood, Olalekan Jeyifous, V. Mitch McEwen, and Amanda Williams gathered to discuss what their involvement and exhibition would be and represent. These conversations and exchanges of thoughts and opinions helped birth the Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC).

Founded in 2020, the BRC has gone on to develop groundbreaking work like the MoMA exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, as well as receiving grants from the Graham Foundation, Open Society, and the Mellon Foundation.

At their core, the group's primary mission "to multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary work" is dedicated to dismantling "systemic white supremacy and hegemonic whiteness within art, design, and academia." The founding members exercised ...

Black Columbia GSAPP faculty and students push school for comprehensive reforms

2020-06-30T18:54:00-04:00

A growing chorus of Black students and faculty members at prestigious universities across the country are pushing for substantive change with regards to the persistent lack of diversity and representation within these institutions.

Two weeks ago, following a blistering letter from the African American Student Union and AfricaGSD student groups at Harvard University, Harvard Graduate School of Design Dean Sarah Whiting published a list of initiatives the school would undertake in coming months to begin to address these concerns. Students at Yale, Rice University, and many other schools have also published open letters imploring school administrators to take basic, concrete steps toward incorporating and valuing the work, scholarly contributions, and perspectives of Black students, faculty, critics, and academics.

This week, Black students and faculty at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) published separate statements arguing ...

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...