The Experimental Design Lab. Thank you @theastergates for your incredible vision and your entire team at @rebuild_foundation @dorchester_industries who have made this feel like sacred space. I am so blessed to break bread with each and every member of this cohort, who are so passionately exploring the possibilities that exist in and around design with class, dignity and most importantly, integrity. Inspired by your stories, practices, crafts and love for community. Inaugural - Jheez! Bottoms up. 🥂 __ The Design Lab, a partnership between Theaster Gates Studio, Dorchester Industries, Rebuild Foundation and Prada Group, is a three-year program curated to support and amplify the work of designers of color working across the creative industries. Fourteen designers and artists from around the world have been selected by a committee of design industry leaders to form the program’s first-ever cohort. Nominated by luminaries across the creative industries including Prada S.p.A. Co-CEO and Prada Co-Creative Director Miuccia Prada, writer and director Ava DuVernay, the late designer Virgil Abloh, architect Sir David Adjaye, and other dignitaries, the awardees were selected through an extensive review process, having demonstrated extraordinary creative potential in their respective practices. The designers and artists selected as part of the inaugural cohort are: Tolu Coker, Fashion Design (London, UK) Germane Barnes, Architecture (Miami, FL) Norman Teague, Product Design (Chicago, IL) Kyle Abraham Dance Co., Dance (Pittsburgh, PA) Mariam Issoufou Kamara, Architecture (Niamey, Niger) Kendall Reynolds, Footwear (Chicago, IL) Yemi Amu, Agriculture (New York, NY) Kenturah Davis, Visual Art (Los Angeles, CA) Salome Asega, Art, Technology & Design (New York, NY) Damarr Brown, Culinary Arts (Chicago, IL) Maya Bird-Murphy, Architecture (Chicago, IL) Brandon Breaux, Fine Art & Design (Chicago, IL) Summer Coleman, Graphic Design (Chicago, IL) Catherine Sarr, Fine Jewelry Design (Chicago, IL)