The Space_ about

The Space for Creative Black Imagination responds to the challenges of the 21st century by its dedication to the study of culture, race, social justice, and imagination beyond established paradigms, through interdisciplinary, interactive and social projects in visual, design, and media studies.

The Space’s research orientation is Black and Feminist which, with broad inclusivity, focuses its activities on the dynamics that shape marginalized communities and the impact of those dynamics on creative production.

The Space works with faculty affiliates, students, and staff in Baltimore and beyond. By means of partnerships with other institutions, the Baltimore community, and collaborators across the globe, makers affiliated with The Space are committed to cutting-edge approaches to the practice and study of creativity and imagination, and to works that expand and challenge the meaning of creative black imagination.

By developing practices and pedagogies that amplify the intersections of art, culture, and society, The Space enables creative and intellectual investigation locally and globally, through interdisciplinary and interactive projects in visual, design, and media culture.

Activities include making, research, teaching, mentoring, public debate, and interactive public projects.

More Details:

The Space for Creative Black Imagination was co-founded by Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis and Dr. Raél Jero Salley.

Dr. Lewis and Dr. Salley are artists and scholars who see responses to urgent questions about culture, race, and social justice as opportunities for new paradigms and imaginings unfettered by conventional constraints of discipline, scale, material, or process.

Start-up funding and institutional support for The Space for Creative Black Imagination was provided by the VP of Strategic Initiatives at MICA, Dr. Sheri Parks, and Sammy Hoi, MICA’s President.

Designed to dynamize the intersections of art, culture, design, scholarship, and community building, The Space aligns with MICA’s strategic planning toward “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Globalization (DEIG)” and the goal of fostering and supporting “OneMICA” that thrives with Baltimore’s legacy of innovation, experimentation, and scholarship. The Space does this through its responsible, audience-focused content that supports citizens as they make a just, sustainable, and joyful world.

The Space is also student-focused. MICA’s students demand “tangible space for Black people to make, study, and imagine,” and The Space was invented and designed to DO and BE this meaningful, substantive work. The Space exemplifies a shift in emphasis in art and design—from a “center-periphery” model of diversity toward exploring the Black creative imagination wielded by makers and scholars whose work has long been obscured by such demographic and rhetorical approaches.

A MICA student expresses it this way: “I have found nourishment and solace in the times I have been able to be in a community with like-minded folk. I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to be attending MICA during this important shift. 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 continued to do my work celebrating the African Diaspora.” The Space provides a safe, nourishing, and enriching site for the Black community at MICA and beyond. “It will be a space of reflection, gathering, and celebration that has 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 to empower makers, designers, and educators in shaping the future of art and design. We invite you to join us at ‘The Space’ to be a part of this impactful work.