The Center for Design and Material Culture is proud to participate in Human Ecology’s Equity & Justice Network. The E&J Network supports the continued evolution of our school into a community wherein people with diverse backgrounds find success, share knowledge, and work together to advance equity and justice.
Community Leader-in-Residence Program
How can we work to stop accepting cultural appropriation and rather encourage cultural appreciation? What are ways in which artists and designers can learn with and through Indigenous objects, like those in the 13,000-object Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection (HLATC), while honoring the peoples, histories, and knowledge systems that created those things and continue to give them meaning? Artist nibiiwakamigkwe has joined the CDMC through a grant from the Equity & Justice Network Community Leader-in-Residence Program to collaborate and think through these questions, with the goal of developing a scalable and adaptable toolkit and curriculum around cultural appropriation. The goal of this partnership is to help students, community members, and industry partners understand the stakes of cultural appropriation for Indigenous communities and develop questions and approaches they can use when engaging with a wide range of cultural objects in an ethical and respectful way.
nibiiwakamigkwe is a Two-Spirit Métis, Onyota’a:ka (Oneida), Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Cuban and waabishkiiwed artist working in traditional Indigenous craftwork and contemporary Woodlands style. Their work fosters awareness of land protection, Indigenous cultural landscapes, and the complexity of identity and the impact of cultural appropriation. Their multidisciplinary practice incorporates song, textiles, dance, storytelling, and visual symbols, relying on their cultural teachings and experience. They currently co-own and operate giige, an Indigenous and Queer art and tattoo space, in Teejop/Madison, Wisconsin.
Equity & Justice Network
Equity & Justice Network Lecture Series in Design Studies
The CDMC is happy to partner with the Equity & Justice Network Taskforce in the Design Studies Department in the School of Human Ecology to host a cross-departmental Equity & Justice Speakers Series in Design Studies.
At its core, Design is about Equity and Justice. Designers aim to make the world better for everyone through thoughtful, innovative, beautiful, empathetic and sustainable practices. The Design Studies E&J Network Committee considers excellence in design in each of the areas represented in our program: Interior Architecture, Textile & Fashion Design, Design Strategy, and Material Culture. We are committed to highlighting professionals that advocate for underrepresented groups, design excellence and innovation in all fields, design approaches that emphasize the importance of empathy and community engagement, interdisciplinary approaches that allow for a more inclusive and diverse approach to design, and other topics such as designing for justice that focus on the world changing possibilities of design education. The E&J Network in Design Studies will expand our students’ worldview and help build a new Scholarly Community within Design Studies and Human Ecology.
Unsettling: Learning of Equity in Creative Expression and Teaching
Xia Gao presents her work and her exploration of "equity" through her practice.
Visible/Invisible: Designing Afro-Futures
Denenge Duyst-Akpem presents on her multi-hyphenate practice as an award-winning, self-described “space sculptor”, designer, writer, performance artist, and educator whose practice and scholarship bridge disciplines of design, ritual and ecology.