The Space for Creative Black Imagination, Inc. responds to the social challenges of our 21st century via the study of culture, society, justice, and imagination in the visual world.
We exceed established paradigms by bringing together artists, activists, and academics for interdisciplinary, interactive, and social projects that matter to studies of art, culture, design, and media.
Activities_
Our research orientation is Black and Feminist, which, with broad inclusivity, focuses on the dynamics that shape marginalized communities and the impact of those dynamics on creative production.
We work with artists, academics, activists, faculty affiliates, students, and workers in Baltimore and beyond.
Through partnerships with other institutions, the Baltimore City community, the state of Maryland, and collaborators across the nation and the world, the makers who produce The Space for Creative Black Imagination are committed to ultra-advanced approaches to theories, practices, and challenges of creative imagination worldwide.
By developing practices and pedagogies that amplify the intersections of art, culture, and society, we enable creative and intellectual investigation locally and globally.
Activities include making, research, teaching, mentoring, public debate, and interactive public projects.
Context_
Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis, Dr. Raél Jero Salley, and Dr. Sheri Parks co-founded the Space for Creative Black Imagination as artists, academics, and activists making new paradigms beyond concerns of academic discipline, scale, material, or process.
We are student-focused. In 2020, students at the Maryland Institute College of Art demanded “tangible space for Black people to make, study, and imagine.”
The Space for Creative Black Imagination emerged to DO and BE this meaningful, substantive work by exemplifying meaningful shifts in art, design, and culture work—from “center-periphery” models of diversity and toward exploring the creative imaginings of makers and scholars that confront such demographic and rhetorical approaches.
Impact_
Our students describe our work:
“I have found nourishment and solace in the times I have been able to be in a community with like-minded folk.”
“I have often felt isolated in my program in an attempt to defend my work and my existence outside of the White Western lens and canon. I have designed my own curriculum, found mentorship outside of my Program, and gotten to know the arts and culture of Baltimore outside of the MICA community.”
“Despite the fear of erasure or being misunderstood within my program, I continue to do my work celebrating the African Diaspora.”
“[This is] a safe, nourishing, and enriching site for the Black community at MICA and beyond… It is a space of reflection, gathering, and celebration with intentions rooted in justice and community care. This gives me great hope. It is much needed now more than ever and for all the generations to come.”
“The Space [for Creative Black Imagination] is a forum for community building, dialogue, learning, and social support that empowers makers, designers, and educators to shape the future of art, culture, and design.”
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Support the continuation of this meaningful work.