Members of the Black School Design Studio, Joseph Cuillier and Kacy George, will discuss their design process and their work in creating the identity and website for the Athenaeum.

The Black School: Studio is an art and design firm that trains youth in paid apprenticeships to execute client work for third party organizations with the long-term intention of self-sustaining TBS programing. Their initial host and client was the Bronx Museum of Art’s anti-gun violence program, with whom they are returning for a second year. This engagement offers the opportunity to provide professional artistic training and paid work to TBS Alumni and selected youth of the community the museum serves in exchange for quality, community center graphic design services.

Joseph Cuillier (b. 1988, New Orleans, LA) is a multidisciplinary artist who explores abstraction as a technology, language in space, and the history of Black radical pedagogies through social practice, installation, textile art, and design. Cuillier's installations use fashion and architecture to render bodies in space and bodies in action in an attempt to bridge gaps between living and form. Currently based in Harlem, NYC where he achieved an MFA from Pratt Institute and is currently a faculty member at Parsons and Pratt. Cuillier's work has been exhibited, collected, and presented at New Museum, MoMA Library, Bauhaus Dessau, Bronx Museum of Art, Wallach Gallery at Columbia University, Schafler Gallery at Pratt Institute, among others. Cuillier has been an artist-in-residence/fellow at Sweet Water Foundation courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Ideas City NOLA, Antenna, New Museum, The Laundromat Project, and A Blade of Grass.

Kacy George believes that data and a clear voice supplements effective communication. He leverages his aptitude for creative thinking, software learning, and client objectives to present fruitful solutions. George offers seven years of experience providing quality design, marketing, and administrative support in a variety of professional settings. George credits his experience at CUNY to the path he chose. At the Whitney Museum of American Art, he helped develop digital media content and pages for their online platform. He developed his first digital solution for the Immigration Services Department at Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow. At Nova XR Media, George improved the start-up’s social media impressions and engagement by 300%. At The Laundromat Project, he helped deliver the access of art resources and activities in neighborhoods across New York City. George currently utilizes his interdisciplinary skills to serve as a Communications Associate at The Office of Graduate Admissions, The City College of New York, providing critical support with CRM and CSM.