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The past nine months have inspired long-overdue discussions about the relationship between race, racism, and all facets of architecture and architectural institutions. In an effort to untangle the complicated connections between race and the built environment, the Museum of Modern Art’s ongoing exhibition “Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America” is giving Black artists and architects a space in which to propose new and better ways forward, which are informed by their own experiences. Nonetheless, due to the ongoing pandemic, many potential visitors have been precluded from experiencing the exhibition in person. Luckily, MoMA has now introduced “Reimagining Blackness and Architecture”—an online program available to audit for free through Coursera.
Spread across six modules and constituting of 14 hours, the program is guided by MoMA’s Arlette Hernandez, the Volkswagen fellow for digital learning, alongside associate curator Sean Anderson. Those participating in the online course will deeply examine “the relationship between architecture and Blackness as an identity and a lived experience,” according to the class description.
After an introductory overview, the six-part course centers on five core themes: Imagination, Care, Knowledge, Refusal, and Liberation. “Reimagining Blackness and Architecture” also takes a broad view of its namesake discipline, defining architecture as a way of seeing and shaping an environment. That perspective creates room for Black architects, artists, and writers to educate students in their own words about (literal) structural inequality, as well as their work to create community- and equality-driven alternatives across various media.
“The contributions of Black makers and creatives—whether as architects or as carpenters; whether as community organizers, storytellers, or people shaping their own domestic spaces—are often erased. But we feel their impact every day,” Anderson says in an introductory discussion alongside “Reconstructions” co-organizer and Columbia professor Mabel O. Wilson. “We hope that by taking this course, you will join us in preserving and celebrating the legacy of Black creatives both past, present, and future.” Although the “Reconstructions” exhibition itself may remain on view only through May 31, this companion course has the potential to inspire more sustained engagement with its subject matter over time.
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